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f^'itue^  h  cl  To 


LIBRARY 


Theological    Seminary, 

i  'I. 'INC ETON.    N.  J 

BL  181  .C54  1845  v. 2 
Chalmers,  Thomas,  1780-1847 
On  natural  theology 


■  \».... 


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ON 


NATURAL  THEOLOGY. 


BY 


THOMAS  CHALMERS,  D.D.  &  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH, 
AND  CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE  ROYAL  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCS. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 


VOL.  II. 


NEW    YORK: 

ROBERT  CARTER,  58  CANAL  STREET, 

AND  PITTSBURG,  58  MARKET  STREET. 

1845. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK  IV. 

EVIDENCES  FOR  A  GOD  IN  THE  ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL 
NATURE  TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN. 

Chap.  I.  On  the  General  Adaptation  of  External  Nature 

to  the  Moral  Constitution  of  Man,    .....     7 

II.  On  the  special  and  subordinate  Adaptations  of 
external  Nature  to  the  Moral  Constitution  of 
Man, 32 

III.  On  those  special  Affections  which  conduce  to  the 

civil  and  political  Well-being  of  Society,    .     .     58 

IV.  On  those  special  Affections  which  conduce  to  the 

economic  Well-being  of  Society,        .     .     .     .108 

V.  Adaptations  of  the  Material  World  to  the  Moral 

and  Intellectual  Constitution  of  Man,     .     .     .144 

VI.  On  the  Capacities  of  the  World  for  making  a 
virtuous  Species  happy ;  and  the  Argument  de- 
ducible  from  this,  both  for  the  Character  of  God, 
and  the  Immortality  of  Man, 206 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK  V. 

ON  THE  INSCRUTABILITY  OF  HE  DIVI^l  C*  NSELS  AND  WAYS  ; 
AND  ON  NATUE,  J  THIOLOGY  .EWED  AS  AN  IMPERFECT 
SYSTEM  AND  AS  4  PRECURSOR  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN 
THEOLOGY. 

Chap.  I.  On   Man's   Partial   and   Limited   Knowledge    of 

Divine  Things, 248 

II.   On  the  Use  of  Hypotheses  in  Theology,     .     .     .  286 
%  leibnitz's  theory  of  the  origin  of  evil. 

IIL  Use  of  Hypothesis  in  Theology,       .....  314 
ON  the  doctrine  of  a  special  providencb 

AND  THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER. 

IV.  On  the  Defects  and  the  Uses  of  Natural  Theology,  358 


BOOK  IV. 

EVIDENCES  FOR  A  GOD  IN  THE  ADAPTATION 
OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO  THE  MENTAL 
CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

On  the  General  Adaptation  of  External  Nature 
to  the  Moral  Constitution  of  Man. 

1.  It  needs  but  a  cursory  observation  of  life  to  be 
made  sensible,  that  man  has  not  been  endowed 
with  a  conscience,  without,  at  the  same  time,  being 
placed  in  a  theatre  which  afforded  the  most  abun- 
dant scope  and  occasion  for  its  exercise.  The 
truth  is,  that,  in  the  multitude  of  fellow-beings 
by  whom  he  is  surrounded,  and  in  the  manifold 
variety  of  his  social  and  family  relations,  there  is  a 
perpetual  call  on  his  sense  of  right  and  wrong — 
insomuch,  that  to  the  doings  of  every  hour  through- 
out his  waking  existence,  one  or  other  of  these 
moral  designations  is  applicable.  It  might  have 
been  stigmatized  as  the  example  of  a  mal-adjustment 
in  the  circumstances  of  our  species,  had  man  been 
provided  with  a  waste  feeling  or  a  waste  faculty, 
which  remained  dormant  and  unemployed  from  the 
want  of  counterpart  objects  that  were  suited  to  it. 
The  wisdom  of  God  admits  of  glorious  vindication 


8    ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

against  any  such  charge  in  the  physical  department 
of  our  nature,  where  the  objective  and  subjective 
have  been  made  so  marvellously  to  harmonize  with 
each  other ;  there  being,  in  the  material  creation, 
sights  of  infinitely  varied  loveliness,  and  sounds  of 
as  varied  melody,   and  many  thousand  tastes  and 
odours  of  exquisite  gratification,  and  distinctions 
innumerable  of  touch  and  feeling,  to  meet  the  whole 
compass   and   diversity   of    the    human    senses — 
multiplying  without  end,  both  the  notice  that  we 
receive  from  external  things,  and  the  enjoyments 
that  we  derive  from  them.      And  as  little  in  the 
moral   department   of  our   nature,   is   any   of  its 
faculties,  and  more  especially  the  great  and  master 
faculty  of  all,  left  to  languish  from  the  want  of 
occupation.      The  whole  of  life,  in  fact,  is  crowded 
with  opportunities  for  its  employment — or,  rather, 
instead  of  being  represented  as  the  subject  of  so 
many  distinct  and  ever-recurring  calls,  conscience 
may  well  be  represented  as  the  constant  guide  and 
guardian  of  human  life ;  and,  for  the  right  discharge 
of  this  its  high  office,  as  being  kept  on  the  alert 
perpetually.     The  creature  on  whom  conscience 
hath   laid   the   obligation   of   refraining   from   all 
mischief,  and  rendering  to  society  all  possible  good, 
lives  under  a  responsibility  which  never  for  a  single 
moment  is  suspended.     He  may  be  said  to  possess 
a  continuity  of  moral  being ;  and  morality  whether 
of  a  good  or  evil  hue,  tinges  the  whole  current  of 
his  history.      It  is  a  thing  of  constancy  as  well  as 
a  thing  of  frequency — for,  even  when  not  carried 
forth  into  action,  it  is  not  dormant ;  but  possesses 
the  mind  ii  £he  form  of  a  cherished  purpose  or 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  9 

cherished  principle,  or,  as  the  Romans  expressed 
it,  of  a  perpetual  will  either  to  that  which  is  good 
or  evil.  But  over  and  ahove  this,  the  calls  to 
action  are  innumerable.  In  the  wants  of  others  ; 
in  their  powers  of  enjoyment;  in  their  claims  on 
our  equity,  our  protection,  or  our  kindness ;  in  the 
various  openings  and  walks  of  usefulness ;  in  the 
services  which  even  the  humblest  might  render  to 
those  of  their  own  family,  or  household,  or  country ; 
in  the  application,  of  that  comprehensive  precept, 
to  do  good  unto  all  men  as  we  have  opportunity — 
we  behold  a  prodigious  number  and  diversity  of 
occasions  for  the  exercise  of  moral  principle.  It 
is  possible  that  the  lessons  of  a  school  may  not  be 
arduous  enough  nor  diversified  enough  for  the 
capacity  of  a  learner.  But  this  cannot  be  affirmed 
of  that  school  of  discipline,  alike  arduous  and 
unremitting,  to  which  the  great  Author  of  our  being 
hath  introduced  us.  Along  with  the  moral  capacity 
by  which  He  hath  endowed  us,  He  hath  provided 
a  richly  furnished  gymnasium  for  its  exercises  and 
its  trials — where  we  may  earn,  if  not  the  triumphs 
of  virtue,  at  least  some  delicious  foretastes  of  that 
full  and  final  blessedness  for  which  the  scholarship 
of  human  life,  with  its  manifold  engagements  and 
duties,  is  so  obviously  fitted  to  prepare  us. 

2.  But  let  us  now  briefly  state  the  adaptation 
of  external  nature  to  the  moral  constitution  of  man, 
with  a  reference  to  that  three-fold  generality  which 
we  have  already  expounded.*  We  have  spoken 
of  the  supremacy  of  conscience,  and  of  the  inherent 

•  Book.  III.     Chapters  ii.,  iii.  &  iv. 

a2 


10   ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

pleasures  and  pains  of  virtue  and  vice,  and  of  the 
law    and   operation    of    habit — as   forming   three 
distinct  arguments  for  the  moral  goodness  of  Him, 
who  hath  so  constructed  our  nature,  that  by  its 
workings    alone,   man   should   be    so  clearly  and 
powerfully  warned  to  a  life  of  righteousness — should 
in  the  native  and  immediate  joys  of  rectitude,  earn 
so  precious  a  reward — and,  finally,  should  be  led 
onward  to  such  a  state  of  character,  in  respect  of 
its  confirmed  good  or  confirmed  evil,  as  to  afford 
one  of  the  likeliest  prognostications  which  nature 
offers  to   our  view  of  an  immortality  beyond  the 
grave,  where  we  shall  abundantly  reap  the  conse- 
quence of  our  present  doings,  in  either  the  happiness 
of  established  virtue,  or  the  utter  wretchedness  and 
woe  of  our  then  inveterate  depravity.     But  hitherto 
we  have  viewed  this  nature  of  man,  rather  as  an 
individual  and   insulated    constitution,   than  as  a 
mechanism  acted  upon  by  any  forces  or  influences 
from  without.      It  is  in  this  latter  aspect  that  we 
are  henceforth  to  regard  it;  it  being  the  proper 
design  of  the  Book  on  which   we   have    entered 
to  state  the  adaptations  of  the  objective  to  the 
subjective,   or  of   external  nature  to    the  mental 
constitution   of  man.      It    should  be  recollected, 
however,*  that  in  our  view  of  external  nature,  we 
comprehend,  not  merely  all  that  is  external  to  the 
world  of  mind — for  this  would  restrict  us  to  the 
consideration   of  those   reciprocal    actings    which 
take  place. between  mind  and  matter.      We  further 
comprehend  all  that  is  external  to  one  individual 

•  See  Introductory  Chapter,  1,  2,  8. 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  11 

mind,  and  therefore  the  other  minds  which  are 
around  it;  and  so,  as  pregnant  with  the  evidence 
of  a  divine  wisdom,  it  is  our  part  to  unfold  the 
actings  and  reactings  that  take  place  between  man 
and  man  in  society. 

3.  And  first,  in  regard  to  the  power  and  sensi- 
l,iility  of  conscience,  there  is  a  most  important 
influence  brought  to  bear  on  each  individual 
possessor  of  this  faculty  from  without,  and  by  his 
fellow  men.  It  will  help  us  to  understand  it  aright, 
if  we  reflect  on  a  felt  and  familiar  experience  of 
all  men — even  the  effect  of  a  very  slight  notice, 
often  of  a  single  word,  from  one  of  our  companions, 
to  recall  some  past  scene  or  transaction  of  our  lives, 
which  had  long  vanished  from  our  remembrance ; 
and  would,  but  for  this  reawakening,  have  remained 
in  deep  oblivion  to  the  end  of  our  days.  The 
phenomenon  can  easily  be  explained  by  the  laws 
of  suggestion.  Our  wonted  trains  of  thought 
might  never  have  conducted  the  mind  to  any 
thought  or  recollection  of  the  event  in  question — 
whereas,  on  the  occurrence  of  even  a  very  partial 
intimation,  all  the  associated  circumstances  come 
into  vivid  recognition;  and  we  are  transported 
back  again  to  the  departed  realities  of  former 
years,  that  had  lain  extinct  within  us  for  so  long  a 
period,  and  might  have  been  extinct  for  ever,  if 
not  lighted  up  again  by  an  extraneous  application. 
How  many  are  the  days  since  early  boyhood,  of 
which  not  one  trace  or  vestige  now  abides  upon 
the  memory.  Yet  perhaps  there  is  not  one  of 
these  days,  the  history  of  which  could  not  be 
recalled,  by  means  of  some  such  external  or  foreign 


12    ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURB  TO 

help  to  the  remembrance  of  it.  Let  us  imagine 
for  example,  that  a  daily  companion  had,  unknown 
to  us,  kept  a  minute  and  statistical  journal  of  all  the 
events  we  personally  shared  in ;  and  the  likelihood 
is,  that,  if  admitted  to  the  perusal  of  this  document, 
even  after  the  lapse  of  half  a  lifetime,  our  memory 
would  depone  to  many  thousand  events  which  had 
else  escaped,  into  utter  and  irrecoverable  forget- 
fulness.  It  is  certainly  remarkable,  that,  on  some 
brief  utterance  by  another,  the  stories  of  former 
days  should  suddenly  reappear,  as  if  in  illumined 
characters,  on  the  tablet  from  which  they  had 
so  totally  faded;  that  the  mention  of  a  single 
circumstance,  if  only  the  link  of  a  train,  should 
conjure  to  life  again  a  whole  host  of  sleeping 
recollections :  and  so,  in  each  of  our  fellow-men, 
might  we  have  a  remembrancer,  who  can  vivify 
our  consciousness  anew,  respecting  scenes  and 
transactions  of  our  former  history  which  had  long 
gone  by;  and  which,  after  having  vanished  once 
from  a  solitary  mind  left  to  its  own  processes, 
would  have  vanished  everlastingly. 

4.  It  is  thus,  that,  not  only  can  one  man  make 
instant  translation  of  his  own  memory ;  but  on 
certain  subjects,  he  can  even  make  instant  trans- 
lation of  his  own  intelligence  into  the  mind  of 
another.  A  shrewd  discerner  of  the  heart,  when 
laying  open  its  heretofore  unrevealed  mysteries, 
makes  mention  of  things  which  at  the  moment  we 
feel  to  be  novelties ;  but  which,  almost  at  the 
same  moment,  are  felt  and  recognised  by  us  as 
truths — and  that,  not  because  we  receive  them 
upon  his  authority,  but  on  the  independent  view 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  13 

that  ourselves  have  of  their  own  evidence.  His 
utterance,  in  fact,  has  evoked  from  the  cell  of  their 
imprisonment,  remembrances,  which  but  for  him, 
might  never  have  been  awakened ;  and  which, 
when  thus  summoned  into  existence,  are  so  many 
vouchers  for  the  perfect  wisdom  and  truth  of  what 
he  tells.  A  thousand  peculiarities  of  life  and 
character,  till  then  unnoticed,  are  no  sooner  heard 
by  us,  although  for  the  first  time  in  our  lives,  than 
they  shine  before  the  mind's  eye,  in  the  light  of  a 
satisfying  demonstration.  And  the  reason  is,  that 
the  materials  of  their  proof  have  been  actually 
stored  up  within  us,  by  the  history  and  experience 
of  former  years,  though  in  chambers  of  forgetfui- 
ness — whence,  however,  they  are  quickly  and 
vividly  called  forth,  as  if  with  the  power  of  a  talis- 
man, by  the  voice  of  him,  who  no  sooner  announces 
his  proposition,  than  he  suggests  the  by-gone 
recollections  of  our  own  which  serve  to  confirm  it. 
The  pages  of  the  novelist,  or  the  preacher,  or  the 
moral  essayist,  though  all  of  them  should  deal 
in  statements  alone,  without  the  formal  allegation 
of  evidence,  may  be  informed  throughout  with 
evidence,  notwithstanding ;  and  that,  because  each 
of  them  speaks  to  the  consciousness  of  his  readers, 
unlocking  a  treasury  of  latent  recollections,  which 
no  sooner  start  again  into  being,  than  they  become 
witnesses  for  the  sagacity  and  admirable  sense  of 
him  with  whom  all  this  luminous  and  satisfying 
converse  is  held.  It  is  like  the  holding  up  of  a 
mirror,  or  the  response  of  an  echo  to  a  voice. 
What  the  author  discovers,  the  reader  promptly 
and  presently  discerns.       The   one   utters   new 


14   ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

things ;  but  that  light  of  immediate  manifestation 
in  which  the  other  beholds  them,  is  struck  out 
of  old  materials  which  himself  too  had  long  since 
appropriated,  but  laid  up  in  a  dormitory,  where 
they  might  have  slumbered  for  ever — had  it  not 
been  for  that  voice  which  charmed  them  anew  into 
life  and  consciousness.  This  is  the  only  way  in 
which  the  instant  recognition  of  truths  before 
unheard  of  and  unknown,  can  possibly  be  explained. 
It  is  because  their  evidence  lies  enveloped  in  the 
reminiscences  of  other  days,  which  had  long  passed 
into  oblivion  ;  but  are  again  presented  to  the  notice 
of  the  mind  by  the  power  of  association. 

5.  This  is  properly  a  case  of  intellectual  rather 
than  of  moral  adaptation ;  and  is  only  now  adverted 
to  for  the  purpose  of  illustration.  For  a  decayed 
conscience  is  susceptible  of  like  resuscitation  with 
a  decayed  memory.  In  treating  of  the  effects  of 
habit,  we  briefly  noticed  the  gradual  weakening  of 
conscience,  as  the  indulgences  of  vice  were  per- 
sisted in.  Its  remonstrances,  however  ineffectual, 
may,  at  the  first,  have  had  a  part  in  that  train  of 
thought  and  feeling,  which  commences  with  a 
temptation,  and  is  consummated  in  guilt ;  but  in 
proportion  to  the  frequency,  wherewith  the  voice 
of  conscience  is  hushed,  or  overborne,  or  refused 
entertainment  by  the  mind,  in  that  proportion  does 
it  lift  a  feebler  and  a  fainter  voice  afterwards — till 
at  length  it  may  come  to  be  unheard ;  and  any 
suggestions  from  this  faculty  may  either  pass  un- 
heeded, or  perhaps  drop  out  of  the  train  altoge- 
ther. It  is  thus  that  many  a  foul  or  horrid  immorality 
may  come   at  length  to  be  perpetrated  without 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  15 

the  sense  or  feeling  of  its  enormity.  Conscience, 
with  the  repeated  stiflings  it  has  undergone,  may 
as  if  on  the  eve  of  extinction,  have  ceased  from 
its  exercises.  This  moral  insensibility  forms,  in 
truth,  one  main  constituent  in  the  hardihood  of 
crime.  The  conscience  is  cradled  into  a  state  of 
stupefaction;  and  the  criminal,  now  a  desperado 
in  guilt,  may  prosecute  his  secret  depravities,  with 
no  relentings  from  within,  and  no  other  dread  upon 
his  spirit,  than  that  of  discovery  by  his  fellow-men. 
6.  And  it  is  on  the  event  of  such  discovery, 
that  we  meet  with  the  phenomenon  in  question. 
When  that  guilt,  to  which  he  had  himself  become 
so  profoundly  insensible,  is  at  length  beheld  in  the 
light  of  other  minds — it  is  then  that  the  scales  are 
made  to  fall  from  the  eyes  of  the  offender  ;  and  he, 
as  if  suddenly  awoke  from  lethargy,  stands  aghast 
before  the  spectacle  of  his  own  worthlessness.  It 
is  not  the  shame  of  detection,  nor  the  fear  of  its 
consequences,  which  forms  the  whole  of  this  dis- 
tress. These  may  aggravate  the  suffering ;  but 
they  do  not  altogether  compose  it — for  often  besides, 
is  there  a  resurrection  of  the  moral  sensibilities 
within  the  bosom  of  the  unhappy  criminal,  as  if 
relumed  at  the  touch  of  sympathy,  with  the  pro- 
nounced judgments  and  feelings  of  other  men. 
When  their  unperverted  and  unwarped  consciences, 
because  free  from  the  delusions  which  encompass 
his  own,  give  forth  a  righteous  sentence — they 
enlist  his  conscience  upon  their  side,  which  then 
reasserts  its  power,  and  again  speaks  to  him  in 
a  voice  of  thunder.  When  that  continuous  train 
between  the  first  excitement  of  some  guilty  passion, 


16         ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

and  its  final  gratification,  from  which  the  suggestions 
of  the  moral  faculty  had  been  so  carefully  excluded, 
is  thus  arrested  and  broken — then  does  conscience, 
as  if  emancipated  from  a  spell,  at  times  recover 
from  the  infatuation  which  held  it;  and  utter 
reproaches  of  its  own,  more  terrible  to  the  sinner's 
heart,  than  all  the  execrations  of  general  society. 
And  whatever  shall  forcibly  terminate  the  guilty 
indulgence,  may,  by  interrupting  the  accustomed 
series  of  thoughts  and  purposes  and  passions,  also 
dissipate  and  put  an  end  to  the  inveteracy  of  this 
moral  or  spiritual  blindness.  The  confinement  of 
a  prison-house  may  do  it.  The  confinement  of  a 
death-bed  may  do  it.  And  accordingly,  on  these 
occasions,  does  conscience,  after  an  interval  it 
would  seem,  not  of  death  but  only  of  suspended 
animation,  come  forth  with  the  might  of  an  avenger, 
and  make  emphatic  representation  of  her  wrongs. 

7.  But  this  influence  which  we  have  attempted 
to  exhibit  in  bold  relief,  by  means  of  rare  and  strong 
exemplification,  is  in  busy  and  perpetual  operation 
throughout  society — and  that,  more  to  prevent  crime 
than  to  punish  it;  rather,  to  maintain  the  conscience 
in  freshness  and  integrity,  than  to  reanimate  it  from 
a  state  of  decay,  or  to  recall  its  aberrations.  Indeed 
its  restorative  efficacy,  though  far  more  striking,  is 
not  so  habitual,  nor  in  the  whole  amount  so  salutary, 
as  its  counteractive  efficacy.  The  truth  is,  that 
we  cannot  frequent  the  companionships  of  human 
life,  without  observing  the  constant  circulation  and 
reciprocal  play  of  the  moral  judgments  among  men 
— with  whom  there  is  not  a  more  favourite  or  familiar 
exercise,  than  that  of  discussing  the  conduct  and 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  I? 

pronouncing  on  the  deserts  of  each  other.  It  is 
thus  that  every  individual,  liable  in  his  own  case 
to  be  misled  or  blinded  by  the  partialities  of  interest 
and  passion,  is  placed  under  the  observation  and 
guardianship  of  his  fellows — who,  exempted  from 
his  personal  or  particular  bias,  give  forth  a  righteous 
sentence  and  cause  it  to  be  heard.  A  pure  moral 
light  is  by  this  means  kept  up  in  society,  composed 
of  men  whose  thoughts  are  ever  employed  in 
"  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  another" — so  that 
every  individual  conscience  receives  an  impulse  and 
a  direction  from  sympathy  with  the  consciences 
around  it.  We  are  aware  that  the  love  of  applause 
intervenes  at  this  point  as  a  distinct  and  auxiliary 
influence.  But  the  primary  influence  is  a  moral 
one.  Each  man  lives  under  a  consciousness  of  the 
vigilant  and  discerning  witnesses  who  are  on  every 
side  of  him ;  and  his  conscience,  kept  on  the  alert 
and  kept  in  accordance  with  theirs,  acts  both  more 
powerfully  and  more  purely,  than  if  left  to  the 
decay  and  the  self-deception  of  its  own  withering 
solitude.  The  lamp  which  might  have  waxed  dim 
by  itself,  revives  its  fading  lustre,  by  contact  and 
communication  with  those  which  burn  more  brightly 
in  other  bosoms  than  its  own ;  and  this  law  of 
intercftange  between  mind  and  mind,  forms  an 
important  adaptation  in  the  mechanism  of  human 
society. 

8.  But,  to  revert  for  a  moment  to  the  revival 
of  conscience  after  that  its  sensibilities  had  become 
torpid  for  a  season;  and  they  are  quickened  anew, 
as  if  by  sympathy,  with  the  moral  judgments  of 
other  men.    This  phenomenon  of  conscience  seems 


18         ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL   NATURE  TO 

to  afford  another  glimpse  or  indication  of  futurity. 
It  at  least  tells  with  what  facility  that  Being,  who 
hath  all  the  resources  of  infinity  at  command,  could, 
and  that  by  an  operation  purely  mental,  inflict  the 
vengeance  of  a  suffering  the  most  exquisite,  on  the 
children  of  disobedience.  He  has  only  to  re-open 
the  fountains  of  memory  and  conscience ;  and  this 
will  of  itself  cause  distillation  within  the  soul  of 
the  waters  of  bitterness.  And  if  in  the  voice  of 
earthly  remembrancers  and  earthly  judges,  we 
observe  such  a  power  of  re-awakening — we  might 
infer,  not  the  possibility  alone,  but  the  extreme 
likelihood  of  a  far  more  vivid  re-awakening,  when 
the  offended  lawgiver  himself  takes  the  judgment 
into  His  own  hands.  If  the  rebuke  of  human 
tongues  and  human  eyes  be  of  such  force  to  revive 
the  sleeping  agony  within  us,  what  may  we  not 
feel,  when  the  adverse  sentence  is  pronounced 
against  us  from  the  throne  of  God,  and  in  the 
midst  of  a  universal  theatre  ?  If,  in  this  our  little 
day,  the  condemnation  is  felt  to  be  insupportable, 
that  twinkles  upon  us  from  the  thousand  secondary 
and  subordinate  lustres  by  which  we  are  surrounded 
— what  must  it  be,  when  He,  by  whose  hand  they 
have  all  been  lighted  up,  turns  towards  us  the 
strength  of  His  own  countenance ;  and,  with  His 
look  of  reprobation  sends  forth  trouble  and  dismay 
over  the  hosts  of  the  rebellious.* 


*  Dr.  Abercromby,  in  his  interesting-  work  on  the  intellectual 
powers,  states  some  remarkable  cases  of  resuscitated  and  enlarged 
memory,  which  remind  one  of  the  explanation  given  by  Mr.  Cole- 
ridge of  the  opening  of  the  books  in  the  day  of  judgment.  It  is 
on  the  opening  of  the  book  of  conscience  that  the  sinner  is  made 
to  feel  the  truth  and  righteousness  of  his  condemnation. 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  19 

9.  But  besides  the  pleasures  and  pains  of  con- 
science, there  is,  in  the  very  taste  and  feeling  of 
moral  qualities,  a  pleasure  or  a  pain.  This  formed 
our  second  general  argument  in  favour  of  God's 
righteous  administration  ;*  and  our  mental  constitu- 
tion, even  when  viewed  singly,  furnishes  sufficient 
materials  on  which  to  build  it.  But  the  argument 
is  greatly  strengthened  and  enhanced  by  the  adapta- 
tion to  that  constitution  of  external  nature,  more 
especially  as  exemplified  in  the  reciprocal  influences 
which  take  place  between  mind  and  mind  in  society : 
for  the  effect  of  this  adaptation  is  to  multiply  both 
the  pleasures  of  virtue  and  the  sufferings  of  vice. 
The  first,  the  original  pleasure,  is  that  which  is 
felt  by  the  virtuous  man  himself;  as,  for  example, 
by  the  benevolent,  in  the  very  sense  and  feeling  of 
that  kindness  whereby  his  heart  is  actuated.  The 
second  is  felt  by  him  who  is  the  object  of  this  kind- 
ness— for  merely  in  the  conscious  possession  of 
another's  good  will,  there  is  a  great  and  distinct 
enjoyment.  And  then  the  manifested  kindness  of 
the  former  awakens  gratitude  in  the  bosom  of  the 
latter;  and  this,  too,  is  a  highly  pleasurable  emotion. 
And  lastly,  gratitude  sends  back  a  delicious  incense 
to  the  benefactor  who  awakened  it.  By  the  purely 
mental  interchange  of  these  affections  there  is 
generated  a  prodigious  amount  of  happiness ;  and 
that,  altogether  independent  of  the  gratifications 
which  are  yielded  by  the  material  gifts  of  liberality 
on  the  one  hand,  or  by  the  material  services  of 
gratitude  on  the  other.     Insomuch,  that  we  have 

•  Book  III.  Chap.  iii. 


20    ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

only  to  imagine  a  reign  of  perfect  virtue  ;  ami  ilien, 
in  spite  of  the  physical  ills  which  < 
inevitably  attach  to  our  conditio.  d   feel 

as  if  we  had  approximated  very  nearly  to  a 
of  perfect  enjoyment  among  men— or,  in  i 
words,  that  the  bliss  of  paradise  would  be  almost 
fully  realized  upon  earth,  were  but  the  moral  graces 
and  charities  of  paradise  firmly  established  there, 
and  in  full  operation.  Let  there  be  honest  and 
universal  good-will  in  every  bosom,  and  this  be 
responded  to  from  all  who  are  the  objects  of  it 
by  an  honest  gratitude  back  again ;  let  kindness, 
in  all  its  various  effects  and  manifestations,  pass 
and  repass  from  one  heart  and  countenance  to 
another;  let  there  be  a  universal  courteousness 
in  our  streets,  and  let  fidelity  and  affection  and 
all  the  domestic  virtues  take  up  their  secure  and 
lasting  abode  in  every  family ;  let  the  succour 
and  sympathy  of  a  willing  neighbourhood  be  ever 
in  readiness  to  meet  and  to  overpass  all  the  want 
and  wretchedness  to  which  humanity  is  liable; 
let  truth,  and  honour,  and  inviolable  friendship 
between  man  and  man,  banish  all  treachery  and 
injustice  from  the  world ;  in  the  walks  of  merchan 
dise,  let  an  unfailing  integrity  on  the  one  side, 
have  the  homage  done  to  it  of  unbounded  con- 
fidence on  the  other — insomuch,  that  each  man 
reposing  with  conscious  safety  on  the  uprightness 
and  attachment  of  his  fellow,  and  withal  rejoicing 
as  much  in  the  prosperity  of  an  acquaintance, 
as  he  should  in  his  own,  there  would  come  to  be 
no  place  for  the  harassments  and  the  heart-burn- 
ings of  mutual  suspicion  or  resentment  or  envy: 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  21 

who  does  not  see,  in  the  state  of  a  society  thus 
constituted  and  thus  harmonized,  the  palpable 
evidence  of  a  nature  so  framed,  that  the  happiness 
of  the  world  and  the  righteousness  of  the  world 
kept  pace  the  one  with  the  other  ?  And  it  is  all- 
important  to  remark  of  this  happiness,  that,  in 
respect  both  to  quality  and  amount,  it  mainly 
consists  of  moral  elements — so  that  while  every 
giver  who  feels  as  he  ought,  experiences  a  delight 
in  the  exercise  of  generosity  which  rewards  him 
a  hundred-fold  for  all  its  sacrifices ;  every  receiver 
who  feels  as  he  ought,  rejoices  infinitely  more  in 
the  sense  of  the  benefactor's  kindness,  than  in 
the  physical  gratification  or  fruit  of  the  benefactor's 
liberality.  It  is  saying  much  for  the  virtuousness 
of  Him  who  hath  so  moulded  and  so  organized 
the  spirit  of  man,  that,  apart  from  sense  and  from 
all  its  satisfactions,  but  from  the  ethereal  play  of 
the  good  affections  alone,  the  highest  felicity  of  our 
nature  should  be  generated ;  that,  simply  by  the 
interchange  of  cordiality  between  man  and  man, 
and  one  benevolent  emotion  re-echoing  to  another, 
there  should  be  yielded  to  human  hearts,  so  much 
of  the  truth  and  substance  of  real  enjoyment — so 
that  did  justice,  and  charity,  and  holiness,  descend 
from  heaven  to  earth,  taking  full  and  universal 
possession  of  our  species,  the  happiness  of  heaven 
would  be  sure  to  descend  along  with  them.  Could 
any  world  be  pointed  out,  where  the  universality 
and  reign  of  vice  effected  the  same  state  of  blissful 
and  secure  enjoyment  that  virtue  would  in  ours — 
we  should  infer  that  he  was  the  patron  and  the 
friend  of  vice,  who  had  dominion  over  it.     But 


22    ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

when  assured,  on  the  experience  we  have  of  our 
actual  nature,  that  in  the  world  we  occupy,  a 
perfect  morality  would,  but  for  certain  physical 
calamities,  be  the  harbinger  of  a  perfect  enjoyment 
— we  regard  this  as  an  incontestable  evidence  for 
the  moral  goodness  of  our  own  actual  Diety. 

10.  And  in  such  an  argument  as  the  present 
although  the  main  beatitudes  of  virtue  are  of  a 
moral  and  spiritual  character,  its  subserviency  to 
the  physical  enjoyments  of  life  ought  not  to  be 
overlooked,  though,  perhaps,  too  obvious  to  be 
dwelt  upon.  The  most  palpable  of  these  subser- 
viencies is  the  effect  of  benevolence  in  diffusing 
abundance  among  the  needy,  and  so  alleviating  the 
ills  of  their  destitution.  This  is  so  very  patent  as 
not  to  require  being  expatiated  on.  Yet  we 
might  notice  here  one  important  adaptation,  con- 
nected with  the  exercise  of  this  morality — realized 
but  in  part,  so  long  as  virtue  has  only  a  partial 
occupation  in  society ;  but  destined,  we  hope,  to 
receive  its  entire  and  beautiful  accomplishment, 
when  virtue  shall  have  become  universal.  It  is 
well  known  that  certain  collateral  but  very  serious 
mischiefs  attend  the  exercise  of  a  profuse  and 
capricious  and  indiscriminate  charity  ;  that  it  may, 
in  fact,  augment  and  aggravate  the  indigence  which 
it  tries  to  relieve,  beside  working  a  moral  deteriora- 
tion among  the  humbler  classes,  by  ministering  to 
the  reckless  improvidence  of  the  dissipated  and  the 
idle;  an  operation  alike  injurious  to  the  physical  com- 
fort of  the  one  party,  and  to  the  moral  comfort  of  the 
other.  These  effects  are  inevitable,  so  long  as  the 
indiscriminate  benevolence  of  the  rich  meets  with 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.       •     23 

an  indefinite  selfishness  and  rapacity  on  the  part  of  the 
poor.  But  this  evil  will  be  mitigated  and  at  length 
done  away,  with  the  growth  of  principle  among 
mankind;  and  more  especially,  when,  instead  of 
being  confined  to  one  of  these  classes,  it  is  partitioned 
among  both.  Let  the  wealthy  be  as  generous  as  they 
ought  in  their  doings,  and  the  poor  be  as  moderate 
as  they  ought  in  their  expectations  and  desires ;  and 
then  will  that  problem,  which  has  so  baffled  the  poli- 
ticians and  economists  of  England,  find  its  own  spon- 
taneous, while,  at  the  same  time,  its  best  adjustment. 
Let  an  exuberant  yet  well  directed  liberality  on  the 
one  side  come  into  encounter,  instead  of  a  sordid 
and  insatiable  appetency,  with  the  recoil  of  delicacy 
and  self-respect  upon  the  other,  and  the  noble 
independence  of  men  who  will  work  with  their  own 
hands  rather  than  be  burdensome ;  and  then  will 
the  benefactions  of  the  wealthy  and  the  wants  of 
the  indigent,  not  only  meet  but  overpass.  The 
willingness  of  the  one  party  to  give,  will  exceed 
the  willingness  of  the  other  to  receive  ;  and  an  evil 
which  threatens  to  rend  society  asunder,  and  which 
law  in  her  attempts  to  remedy  has  only  exasperated, 
will  at  length  give  way  before  the  omnipotence  of 
moral  causes.  This,  as  being  one  of  many  speci- 
mens, tells  most  significantly  that  man  was  made 
for  virtue,  or  that  this  was  the  purpose  of  God  in 
making  him — when  we  find,  that  through  no  other 
medium  than  the  morality  of  the  people,  can  the 
sorest  distempers  of  society  be  healed.  The 
impotence  of  human  wisdom,  and  of  every  political 
expedient  which  this  wisdom  can  devise  for  the 
well-being  of  a  state,  when  virtue  languishes  among 


24    ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

the  people,  is  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  which. 
experience  affords,  that  virtue  was  the  design  of 
our  creation.  And  we  know  not  how  more  emphatic 
demonstration  can  be  given  of  a  virtuous  Deity, 
than  when  we  find  society  to  have  been  so  con- 
structed by  His  hands,  that  virtue  forms  the  great 
alternative  on  which  the  secure  or  lasting  prosperity 
of  a  commonwealth  is  hinged — so  that  for  any 
aggregate  of  human  beings  to  be  right  physically 
and  right  economically,  it  is  the  indispensable, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  all-effectual  condition, 
that  they  should  be  right  morally. 

11.  Nothing  can  be  more  illustrative  of  the 
character  of  God,  or  more  decisive  of  the  question, 
whether  His  preference  is  for  universal  virtue  or 
for  universal  vice  in  the  world,  than  to  consider 
the  effect  of  each  on  the  well-being  of  human 
society — even  that  society  which  He  did  Himself 
ordain,  and  whose  mechanism  is  the  contrivance  of 
His  own  intellect,  and  the  work  of  His  own  hands. 
It  may  not  be  easy  to  explain  the  origin  of  that 
moral  derangement  into  which  the  species  has 
actually  fallen  ;  but  it  affords  no  obscure  or  uncertain 
indication  of  what  the  species  was  principally  made 
for,  when  wo  picture  to  ourselves  the  difference 
between  a  commonwealth  of  vice  and  a  common- 
wealth of  virtue.  We  have  already  said  enough 
on  the  obvious  connexion  which  obtains  between 
the  righteousness  of  a  nation  and  the  happiness  of 
its  families ;  and  it  were  superfluous  to  dilate  on 
the  equally  obvious  connexion  which  obtains 
between  a  state  of  general  depravity,  and  a  state 
of  general  wretchedness  and  disorder.     And  the 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  25 

counterpart  observation  holds  true,  that,  as  the 
beatitudes  of  the  one  condition,  so  the  sufferings 
of  the  other  are  chiefly  made  up  of  moral  elements. 
If,  in  the  former,  there  be  a  more  precious  and 
heartfelt  enjoyment  in  the  possession  of  another's 
kindness,  than  in  all  the  material  gifts  and  services 
to  which  that  kindness  has  prompted  him — so  in 
the  latter,  may  it  often  happen,  that  the  agony 
arising  from  simple  consciousness  of  another's 
malignity,  will  greatly  exceed  any  physical  hurt, 
whether  in  person  or  property,  that  we  ever  shall 
sustain  from  him.  A  loss  that  we  suffer  from  the 
dishonesty  of  another  is  far  more  severely  felt,  than 
a  ten-fold  loss  occasioned  by  accident  or  misfortune 
— or,  in  other  words,  we  find  the  moral  provocation 
to  be  greatly  more  pungent  and  intolerable  than 
the  physical  calamity.  So  that  beside  the  material 
damage,  too  palpable  to  be  insisted  on  at  any 
length,  which  vice  and  violence  inflict  upon  society, 
there  should  be  taken  into  account  the  soreness 
of  spirit,  the  purely  mental  distress  and  disquietude 
which  follow  in  their  train — of  which  we  have 
already  seen,  how  much  is  engendered  even  in  the 
workings  of  one  individual  mind ;  but  susceptible 
of  being  inflamed  to  a  degree  indefinitely  higher, 
by  the  reciprocal  working  of  minds,  all  of  them 
hating  and  all  hateful  to  each  other.  In  this  mere 
antipathy  of  the  heart,  more  especially  when  aided 
by  nearness  and  the  opportunities  of  mutual 
expression,  there  are  sensations  of  most  exquisite 
bitterness.  There  is  a  wretchedness  hi  the  mere 
collision  of  hostile  feelings  tnemselves,  though  they 
should  break  tot  forth  into  overt-acts  of  hostility; 

VOL.  II.  B 


26    ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

in  the  simple  demonstrations  of  malignity,  apart 
from  its  doings ;  in  the  war  but  of  words  and  looks 
and  fierce  gesticulations,  though  no  violence  should 
be  inflicted  on  the  one  side  or  sustained  upon  the 
other.  To  make  the  aggressor  in  these  purely 
mental  conflicts  intensely  miserable,  it  is  enough 
that  he  should  experience  within  him  the  agitations' 
and  the  fires  of  a  resentful  heart.  To  make  the 
recipient  intensely  miserable,  it  is  enough  that  he 
should  be  demoniacally  glared  upon  by  a  resentful 
eye.  Were  this  power  which  resides  in  the 
emotions  by  themselves  sufficiently  reflected  on,  it 
would  evince  how  intimately  connected,  almost  how 
identified,  wickedness  and  wretchedness  are  with 
each  other.  To  realize  the  miseries  of  a  state  of 
war,  it  is  not  necessary  that  there  should  be  contests 
of  personal  strength.  The  mere  contests  of 
personal  feeling  will  suffice.  Let  there  be  mutual 
rage  and  mutual  revilings ;  let  there  be  the  pangs 
and  the  outcries  of  fierce  exasperation ;  let  there 
be  the  continual  droppings  of  peevishness  and 
discontent ;  let  disdain  meet  with  equal  disdain  ;  or 
even,  instead  of  scorn  from  the  lofty,  let  there  be 
but  the  slights  and  the  insults  of  contempt  from 
men,  who  themselves  are  of  the  most  contemptible ; 
let  there  be  haughty  defiance,  and  spiteful  derision, 
and  the  mortifications  of  affronted  and  irritated 
pride — in  the  tumults  of  such  a  scene,  though 
tumults  of  the  mind  alone,  there  were  enough 
to  constitute  a  hell  of  assembled  maniacs  or  of 
assembled  malefactors.  The  very  presence  and 
operation  of  these  passions  would  form  their  own 
sorest  punishment.     To  have  them  perpetually  in 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  27 

ourselves  is  to  have  a  hell  in  the  heart.  To  meet 
with  them  perpetually  in  others  is  to  be  compassed 
about  with  a  society  of  fiends,  to  be  beset  with  the 
miseries  of  a  Pandemonium. 

12.  Whether  we  look  then  to  the  separate  or 
the  social  constitution  of  humanity,  we  observe 
abundant  evidence  for  the  mind  and  meaning  of 
the  Deity,  who  both  put  together  the  elements  of 
each  individual  nature,  and  the  elements  which 
enter  into  the  composition  of  society.  We  cannot 
imagine  a  more  decisive  indication  of  His  favour 
being  on  the  side  of  moral  good,  and  His  displeasure 
against  moral  evil,  than  that,  by  the  working  of 
each  of  these  constitutions,  virtue  and  happiness  on 
the  one  hand,  vice  and  wretchedness  on  the  other, 
should  be  so  intimately  and  inseparably  allied. 
Such  sequences  or  laws  of  nature  as  these,  speak 
as  distinctly  the  character  of  him  who  established 
them,  as  any  laws  of  jurisprudence  would  the  cha- 
racter of  the  monarch  by  whom  they  were  enacted. 
And  to  learn  this  lesson,  we  do  not  need  to  wait  for 
the  distant  consequences  of  vice  or  virtue.  We  at 
once  feel  the  distinction  put  upon  them  by  the 
hand  of  the  Almighty,  in  the  instant  sensations 
which  He  hath  appended  to  each  of  them — 
implicated  as  their  effects  are  with  the  very  foun- 
tain-head of  moral  being,  and  turning  the  hearts 
which  they  respectively  occupy,  into  the  seats 
either  of  wildest  anarchy,  or  of  serene  and  blissful 
enjoyment. 

13.  The  law  and  operation  of  habit,  as  exemplified 
in  one  individual  mind  formed  the  theme  of  our 


28        ADAPTATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

third  general  argument.*  The  only  adaptation 
which  we  shall  notice  to  this  part  of  our  mental 
constitution  in  the  framework  of  society,  is  that 
afforded  by  the  changes  which  it  undergoes  in  the 
flux  of  its  successive  generations — in  virtue  of  which, 
the  tender  susceptibilities  of  childhood  are  placed 
under  the  influence  of  that  ascendant  seniority 
which  precedes  or  goes  before  it.  At  first  sight  it 
may  be  thought  of  this  peculiarity,  that  it  tells 
equally  in  both  directions — that  is,  either  in  the 
transmission  and  accumulation  of  vice,  or  in  the 
transmission  and  accumulation  of  virtue  in  the  world. 
But  there  is  one  circumstance  of  superiority  in 
favour  of  the  latter,  which  bids  us  look  hopefully 
onward  to  the  final  prevalence  of  the  good  over  the 
evil.  We  are  aware  of  the  virulence  wherewith,  in 
families,  the  crime  and  profligacy  of  a  depraved 
parentage  must  operate  on  the  habits  of  their 
offspring;  and  of  the  deadly  poison  which,  in  crowded 
cities,  passes  with  quick  descent  from  the  older  to 
the  younger,  along  the  links  of  youthful  companion- 
ship ;  and  even  of  those  secret,  though  we  trust  rare 
and  monstrous  societies,  which,  in  various  countries 
and  various  ages,  were  held  for  the  celebration  of 
infernal  orgies,  for  the  initiation  of  the  yet  unknow- 
ing or  unpractised  in  the  mysteries  of  vice.  But 
after  every  deduction  has  been  made  for  these,  who 
does  not  see  that  the  systematic  and  sustained  effort, 
the  wide  and  general  enterprise,  the  combination 
of  numbers  in  the  face  of  day  and  with  the 
sympathies  of  an  approving  public,  give  a  prodigious 

*  Book  III.  Chap.  iv. 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  29 

balance  on  the  side  of  moral  education?  The 
very  selfishness  of  vice  and  expansiveness  of  virtue 
give  rise  to  this  difference  between  them — the  one 
concentered  on  its  own  personal  enjoyments,  and, 
with  a  few  casual  exceptions,  rather  heedless  of  the 
principles  of  others  than  set  on  any  schemes  or 
speculations  of  proselytism ;  the  other,  by  its  very 
nature,  aspiring  after  the  good  of  the  whole  species, 
and  bent  on  the  propagation  of  its  own  likeness,  till 
righteousness  and  truth  shall  have  become  univer- 
sal among  men.  Accordingly,  all  the  ostensible 
countenance  and  exertion,  in  the  cause  of  learning, 
whether  by  governments  or  associations,  is  on  the 
side  of  virtue ;  while  no  man  could  dare  to  front 
the  public  eye,  with  a  scheme  of  discipleship  in  the 
lessons  whether  of  fraud  or  profligacy.  The  clear 
tendency  then  is  to  impress  a  right  direction  on 
the  giant  power  of  education;  and  when  this  is 
brought  to  bear,  more  systematically  and  generally 
than  heretofore,  on  the  pliant  boyhood  of  the  land 
— we  behold,  in  the  operation  of  habit,  a  guarantee 
for  the  progressive  conquests,  and  at  length  the 
ultimate  and  universal  triumph  of  good  over  evil  in 
society.  Our  confidence  in  this  result  is  greatly 
enhanced,  when  we  witness  the  influence  even  of 
but  one  mind  among  the  hundreds  of  any  given 
neighbourhood — if  zealously  and  wisely  directed  to 
the  object  of  moral  and  economical  improvement. 
Let  that  most  prolific  of  all  philanthropy  then  be 
fully  and  fairly  set  on  foot,  which  operates,  by 
means  of  education,  on  the  early  germs  of  character  \ 
and  we  shall  have  the  most  effective  of  all  agency 
engaged,  for  the  production  of  the  likeliest  of  ali 


30        ADA11ATION  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

results.  The  law  of  habit,  when  looked  to  in  the 
manageable  ductility. of  its  outset,  presents  a  mighty- 
opening  for  the  production  of  a  new  era  in  the 
moral  history  of  mankind;  and  the  same  law  of  habit, 
when  looked  to  in  the  maturity  of  its  fixed  and  final 
establishment,  encourages  the  expectation  of  a  per- 
manent as  well  as  universal  reign  of  virtue  in  the  world. 
14.  Even  in  the  yet  chaotic  and  rudimental  state 
of  the  world,  we  can  observe  the  powers  and  the 
Likelihoods  of  such  a  consummation:  and  what  gives 
an  overbearing  superiority  to  the  chances  on  the 
side  of  virtue  is,  that  parents,  although  the  most 
sunken  in  depravity  themselves,  welcome  the  pro- 
posals, and  receive  with  gratitude,  the  services  of 
Christian  or  moral  philanthropy  in  behalf  of  their 
families.  However  hopeless  then  of  reformation 
among  those  whose  vicious  habits  have  become 
inveterate,  it  is  well  that  there  should  be  so  wide 
and  unobstructed  an  access  to  those,  among  whom 
the  habits  have  yet  to  be  formed.  It  is  this  which 
places  education  on  such  firm  vantage-ground,  if 
not  for  reclaiming  the  degeneracy  of  individuals, 
yet  for  reclaiming  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  generations 
the  degeneracy  of  the  species;  and  however  abortive 
many  of  the  schemes  and  enterprises  in  this  highest 
walk  of  charity  may  hitherto  have  proved,  yet  the 
manifest  and  growing  attention  to  the  cause  does 
open  a  brilliant  moral  perspective  for  the  ages  that 
are  to  come.  The  experience  of  what  has  been 
done  locally  by  a  few  zealous  individuals,  warrants 
our  most  cheering  anticipations  of  what  may  yet  be 
done  universally — when  the  powers  of  that  simple 
but    mighty    instrument   which   they   employ,   if 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  31 

brought  to  bear  on  that  most  malleable  of  all  subjects, 
the  infancy  of  human  existence,  come  to  be  better 
understood,  and  put  into  busy  operation  over  the 
whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  In  the 
grievous  defect  of  our  national  institutions,  and 
the  wretched  abandonment  of  a  people  left  -to 
themselves,  and  who  are  permitted  to  live  recklessly 
and  at  random  as  they  list — we  see  enough  to  account 
both  for  the  profligacy  of  our  crowded  cities,  and 
for  the  sad  demoralization  of  our  neglected  provinces. 
But  on  the  other  hand  we  feel  assured,  that,  in  an 
efficient  system  of  wise  and  well  principled  instruction, 
there  are  capabilities  within  our  reach  for  a  great 
and  glorious  revival.  We  might  not  know  the  reason, 
why,  in  the  moral  world,  so  many  ages  of  darkness 
and  depravity  should  have  been  permitted  to  pass 

by any  more  than  we  know  the  reason,  why,  in  the 

natural  world,  the  trees  of  a  forest,  instead  of  starting 
all  at  once  into  the  full  efflorescence  and  stateliness 
of  their  manhood,  have  to  make  their  slow  and 
laborious  advancement  to  maturity,  cradled  in  storms, 
and  alternately  drooping  or  expanding  with  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  seasons.  But,  though  unable  to 
scan  all  the  cycles  either  of  the  moral  or  natural  eco- 
nomy, yet  may  we  recognise  such  influences  at  work, 
as  when  multiplied  and  developed  to  the  uttermost, 
are  abundantly  capable  of  regenerating  the  world. 
One  of  the  likeliest  of  these  influences  is  the  power 
of  education — to  the  perfecting  of  which  so  many 
minds  are  earnestly  directed  at  this  moment;  and  for, 
the  general  acceptance  of  which  in  society,  we  have  a 
guarantee,  in  the  strongest  affections  and  fondest 
wishes  of  the  fathers  and  mothers  .of  families. 


32      ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 


CHAPTER  II. 

On  the  special  and  subordinate  Adaptations  of  ex- 
ternal Nature  to  the  moral  Constitution  of  Man, 

1.  We  have  hitherto  confined  our  attention  to 
certain  great  and  simple  phenomena  of  our  moral 
nature,  which,  though  affording  a  different  sort  of 
evidence  for  the  being  of  God  from  the  organic  and 
complicated  structures  of  the  material  world — yet, 
on  the  hypothesis  of  an  existent  Deity,  are  abun- 
dantly decisive  of  His  preference  for  virtue  over 
vice,  and  so  of  the  righteousness  of  His  own  cha- 
racter. That  he  should  have  inserted  a  great 
master  faculty  in  every  human  bosom,  all  whose 
decisions  are  on  the  side  of  justice,  benevolence, 
and  truth,  and  condemnatory  of  their  opposites; 
that  he  should  have  invested  this  conscience  with 
such  powers  of  instant  retribution,  in  the  triumphs 
of  that  complacency  wherewith  he  so  promptly 
rewards  the  good,  and  the  horrors  of  that  remorse 
wherewith  He  as  promptly  chastises  the  evil ;  that 
beside  these,  He  should  have  so  "distinguished 
between  virtue  and  vice,*  as  that  the  emotions  and 

*  Butler,  in  Part  I,  Chapter  3d  of  his  Analogy,  makes  the 
following  admirable  discrimination  between  actions  themselves 
and  that  quality  ascribed  to  them  which  we  call  virtuous  or  vicious. 
— "  An  action  by  which  any  natural  passion  is  gratified,  or  fortune 
acquired,  procures  delight  or  advantage,  abstracted  from  all  con- 
sideration of  the  morality  of  such  action,  consequently  the  pleasure 
or  advantage  in  this  case  is  gained  by  the  action  itself,  not  by  the 
morality,  the  virtuousness,  or  viciousness  of  it,  though  it  be, 
perhaps,  virtuous  or  vicious.    Thus  to  say,  such  an  action  or  course 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  33 

exercises  of  the  former  should  all  be  pleasurable, 
and  of  the  latter  painful  to  the  taste  of  the  inner 
man ;  that  he  should  have  so  ordained  the  human 
constitution,  as  that  by  the  law  of  habit,  virtuous  and 
vicious  lives,  or  series  of  acts  having  these  respec- 
tive moral  qualities,  should  issue  in  the  fixed  and 
permanent  results  of  virtuous  and  vicious  characters 
—these  form  the  important  generalities  of  our 
moral  nature :  And  while  they  obviously  and 
immediately  announce  to  us  a  present  demonstration 
in  favour  of  virtue ;  they  seem  to  indicate  a  pre- 
paration and  progress  towards  a  state  of  things, 
when,  after  that  the  moral  education  of  the  present 
life  has  been  consummated,  the  great  ruler  of  men 
will  manifest  the  eternal  distinction  which  he  puts 
between  the  good  and  the  evil. 

2.  Now  in  these  few  simple  sequences,  however 
strongly  and  unequivocally  they  evince  the  cha- 
racter of  a  God  already  proved  or  already  presup- 
posed, we  have  not  the  same  intense  evidence  for 
design,  which  is  afforded  by  the  distinct  parts  or 
the  distinct  principles  of  a  very  multifarious  com- 
bination. Yet  the  constitution  of  man's  moral 
nature  is  not  defective  in  this  evidence — though 
certainly  neither  so  prolific  nor  so  palpable  in  our 
mental,  as  in  our  anatomical  system.  Still,  how- 
ever, there  is  a  mechanism  in  mind  as  well  as  body, 

of  behaviour,  procured  such  pleasure  or  advantage,  or  brought  on 
such  inconvenience  and  pain,  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  saying 
that  such  good  or  bad  effect  was  owing  to  the  virtue  or  vice  of 
such  action  or  behaviour.  In  one  case,  an  action  abstracted  from 
all  moral  consideration,  produced  its  effect.  In  the  other  case, 
for  it  will  appear  that  there  are  such  cases,  the  morality  of  the 
action,  the  action  under  a  moral  consideration,  i.  e.  the  virtuous- 
ness  or  viciousness  of  it,  produced  the  effect. 

bS 


34   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

with  a  diversity  of  principles,  if  not  a  diversity  of 
parts,  consisting  of  so  many  laws,  grafted  it  may 
be  on  a  simple  and  indivisible  substance,  yet  yield- 
ing in  the  fact  of  their  beneficial  concurrence,  no 
inconsiderable  argument  for  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness of  Him  who  framed  us.  Nor  does  it  matter, 
as  we  have  already  said,  whether  these  are  all  of 
them  original,  or  some  of  them,  as  the  analysts  of 
mind  have  laboured  to  manifest,  only  derivative 
laws  in  the  human  constitution.  If  the  former, 
we  have  an  evidence  grounded  on  the  beneficial 
conjunction  of  a  greater  number  of  independent 
laws.  If  the  latter,  we  are  reduced  to  fewer 
independent  laws — but  these  all  the  more  prolific 
of  useful  applications,  each  of  which  applications  is 
grounded  on  a  beneficial  adaptation  of  some  peculiar 
circumstances,  in  the  operation  of  which  it  is,  that 
the  primary  is  transmuted  into  a  secondary  law.* 
But  whether  the  one  or  the  other,  they  exhibit 
phases  of  humanity  distinct  from  any  that  we  have 
yet  been  employed  in  contemplating  ;  a  number  of 
special  affections,  each  characterized  by  its  own 
name,  and  pointing  to  its  own  separate  object,  yet 
all  of  them  performing  an  important  subsidiary  part, 
for  the  moral  good  both  of  the  individual  and  of 
the  species ;  and  presenting  us,  therefore,  with  the 
materials  of  additional  evidence  for  a  moral  and 
beneficent  design  in  the  formation  of  our  race. 

*  And  besides  this,  would  it  not  bespeak  a  more  comprehensive 
wisdom  on  the  part  of  a  human  artificer,  that  by  means  of  one 
device,  or  by  the  application  of  one  principle,  he  effected  not  a 
few,  but  many  distinct  and  beneficial  purposes ;  and  does  it  not 
in  like  manner  enhance  the  exhibition  of  divine  skill  in  the 
workmanship  of  nature,  when  a  single  law  is  found  to  subserve 
ft  vast  and  manifold  variety  of  important  uses  ? 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.         35 

3.  When  we  look  to  the  beauty  which  over- 
spreads the  face  of  nature,  and  the  exquisite 
gratification  which  it  ministers  to  the  senses  of  man 
— we  cannot  doubt,  either  the  taste  for  beauty 
which  resides  in  the  primeval  mind  that  emanated 
all  this  gracefulness ;  or  the  benevolence  that 
endowed  man  with  a  kindred  taste,  and  so  fitted 
him  for  a  kindred  enjoyment.  This  conclusion, 
however,  like  any  moral  conclusion  we  have  yet 
come  to,  respecting  the  perfections  or  the  purposes 
of  God,  is  founded  on  generalities — on  the  general 
amount  of  beauty  in  the  world,  and  the  delight 
wherewith  men  behold  and  admire  it.  Yet,  beside 
this,  we  may  draw  a  corroborative  evidence  for  the 
same,  from  the  machinery  of  certain  special  con- 
trivances— as  the  construction  of  the  calyx  in 
plants,  for  the  defence  of  the  tender  blossom 
previous  to  its  expansion ;  and  the  apparatus  for 
scattering,  seeds,  whereby  the  earth  is  more  fully 
invested  with  its  mantle  of  rich  and  varied  gar- 
niture. And  notwithstanding  the  blight  which  has 
so  obviously  passed  over  the  moral  world,  and 
defaced  many  of  its  original  lineaments,  while  it 
has  left  the  materialism  of  creation,  the  loveliness 
of  its  scenes  and  landscapes,  in  a  great  measure 
untouched — still  we  possess  very  much  the  same 
materials  for  a  Natural  Theology,  in  reasoning 
on  the  element  of  virtue,  as  in  reasoning  on  the 
element  of  beauty.  We  have  first  those  generali- 
ties of  argument  which  are  already  expounded  by 
us  at  sufficient  length ;  and  we  have  also  the  evi- 
dence, now  to  be  unfolded,  of  certain  special  pro- 
visions for  the   preservation   and  growth   of  the 


36   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

immortal  plant,  in  the  study  of  which,  we  shall 
observe  more  of  mechanism  than  we  have  yet  con- 
templated ;  and  more,  therefore,  of  that  peculiar 
argument  for  design,  which  lies  in  the  adaptation  of 
varied  means,  in  the  concurrence  of  distinct  expe- 
dients, each  helping  the  other  onward  to  a  certain 
beneficial  consummation. 

4.  But  we  must  here  premise  an  observation 
extensively  applicable  in  mental  science.  When 
recognising  the  obvious  subserviency  of  some  given 
feeling  or  principle  in  the  mind  to  a  beneficial 
result — we  are  apt  to  imagine  that  it  was  somehow 
or  other,  in  the  contemplation  of  this  result,  that 
the  principle  was  generated ;  and  that  therefore, 
instead  of  a  distinct  and  original  part  of  the  human 
constitution,  it  is  but  a  derivative  from  an  anterior 
process  of  thought  or  calculation  on  the  part  of 
man,  in  the  act  of  reflecting  on  what  was  most  for 
the  good  of  himself,  or  the  good  of  society.  In  this 
way  man  is  conceived  to  be  in  some  measure  the 
creator  of  his  own  mental  constitution  ;  or,  at  least, 
there  are  certain  parts  of  it  regarded  as  secondary, 
and  the  formation  of  which  is  ascribed  to  the  wisdom 
of  man,  which,  if  regarded  as  instinctive  and  primary, 
would  have  been  directly  ascribed  to  the  wisdom  of 
God.  There-  are  many  writers,  for  example,  on 
the  origin  and  rights  of  property,  who,  instead 
of  admitting  what  may  be  termed  an  instinct 
of  appropriation,  would  hold  the  appropriating 
tendency  to  be  the  result  of  human  intelligence, 
after  experience  had  of  the  convenience  and  benefits 
of  such  an  arrangement.  Now  on  this  subject,  we 
may  take  a  lesson  from  the  physical  constitution  of 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  37 

man.  It  is  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of 
our  animal  system,  that  food  should  be  received  at 
certain  intervals  into  the  stomach.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing all  the  strength  which  is  ascribed  to  the 
principle  of  self-preservation,  and  all  the  veneration 
which  is  professed  by  the  expounders  of  our  nature 
for  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  man — the  author 
of  our  frame  has  not  left  this  important  interest 
merely  to  our  care,  or  our  consideration.  He  has 
not  so  trusted  us  to  ourselves ;  but  has  inserted 
among  the  other  affections  and  principles  wherewith 
He  has  endowed  us,  the  appetite  of  hunger — a 
strong  and  urgent  and  ever-recurring  desire  for 
food,  which,  it  is  most  certain,  stands  wholly 
unconnected  with  any  thought  on  our  part,  of  its 
physical  or  posterior  uses  for  the  sustenance  of  the 
body;  and  from  which  it  would  appear,  that  we 
need  to  be  not  only  reminded  at  proper  intervals  of 
this  incumbent  duty,  but  goaded  on  to  it.  Could 
the  analysts  of  our  nature  have  ascertained  of 
hunger,  that  it  was  the  product  of  man's  reflection 
on  the  necessity  of  food,  it  might  have  been  quoted 
as  an  instance  of  the  care  which  man  takes  of 
himself.  But  it  seems  that  he  could  not  be  thus 
confided,  either  with  his  own  individual  preservation, 
or  with  the  preservation  of  his  species  ;  and  so,  for 
the  security  of  both  these  objects,  strong  appetites 
had  to  be  given  him,  which,  incapable  of  being 
resolved  into  any  higher  principles,  stand  distinctly 
and  unequivocally  forth,  as  instances  of  the  care 
that  is  taken  of  him  by  God. 

5.  Now  this,  though  it  does  not  prove,  yet  may 
prepare   us   to   expect   similar  provisions  in  the 


38   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

constitution  of   our  minds.      Indeed  the  operose 
and  complicated  system,  which  the  great  Architect 
of  nature  hath  devised  for  our  bodies,  carries  in  it 
a  sort  of  warning  to  those,  who,  enamoured  of  the 
simplifications  of  theory,  would  labour  to  reduce  all 
our  mental  phenomena  to  one  or  two  principles. 
There  is  no  warrant  for  this  in  the  examples  which 
Anatomy  and  Physiology,  those  sciences  that  have 
to  do  with  the  animal  economy  of  man,  have  placed 
before  our  eyes.      Now,  though  we  admit  not  this 
as  evidence   for   the   actual  complexity  of  man's 
moral  economy — it  may  at  least  school  away  those 
prepossessions  of  the  fancy  or  of  the  taste,  that 
would  lead  us  to  resist  or  to  dislike  such  evidence 
when  offered.      We  hold  it  not  unlikely  that  the 
same   being,  who,  to  supplement  the  defects   of 
human  prudence,  hath  furnished  us  with  distinct 
corporeal    appetites,    that    might   prompt   us   to 
operations,  of  the  greatest  subservient  benefit  both 
to  the  individual  and  the  species — might  also,  to 
supplement    the    defects   of  human    wisdom   and 
principle,  have  furnished  us  with  distinct  mental 
affections  or  desires,  both  for  our  own  particular 
good  and  the  good  of  society.     If  man  could  not 
be   left  to  his   own   guidance,   in  matters    which 
needed  but  the  anticipation  of  a  few  hours  ;  but  to 
save  him  from  the  decay  and  the  death  which  must 
have  otherwise  ensued,  had  so  powerful  a  remem- 
brancer and  instigator  given  to  him  as  the  appetite 
of  hunger — we  ought  not  to  marvel,  should  it  be 
found  that  nature,  in  endowing  him  mentally,  hath 
presumed    on    his    incapacity,    either   for   wisely 
devising  or  for  regularly  acting,  with  a  view  tc 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  39 

distant  consequences,  and  amid  the  complicated 
retains  of  human  society.  It  may,  on  the  one 
hand,  have  inserted  forces,  when  the  mere  considera- 
tion of  good  effects  would  not  have  impelled  ;  or, 
on  the  other  hand,  may  have  inserted  checks,  when 
the  mere  consideration  of  evil  effects  would  not 
have  arrested.  Yet  so  it  is,  that,  because  of  the 
good  that  is  thereby  secured  and  of  the  evil  that  is 
thereby  shunned — we  are  apt  to  imagine  of  some  of 
the  most  useful  principles  of  our  nature,  that  they 
are,  somehow,  the  product  of  human  manufacture ; 
the  results  of  human  intelligence,  or  of  rapid 
processes  of  thought  by  man,  sitting  in  judgment 
on  the  consequences  of  his  actions,  and  wisely 
providing  either  for  or  against  them.  Now  it  is 
very  true,  that  the  anger,  and  the  shame,  and  the 
emulation,  and  the  parental  affection,  and  the 
compassion,  and  the  love  of  reputation,  and  the 
sense  of  property,  and  the  conscierice  or  moral 
sense — are  so  many  forces  of  a  mechanism,  which 
if  not  thus  furnished,  and  that  too  within  certain 
proportions,  would  run  into  a  disorder  that  might 
have  proved  destructive  both  of  the  individual  and 
of  the  species.  For  reasons  already  hinted  at,  we 
hold  it  immaterial  to  the  cause  of  natural  theism, 
whether  these  constitutional  propensities  of  the 
human  mind  are  its  original  or  its  secondary  laws ; 
but,  at  all  events,  it  is  enough  for  any  argument 
of  ours,  that  they  are  not  so  generated  by  the 
wisdom  of  man,  as  to  supersede  the  inference  which 
we  draw  from  them,  in  favour  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  goodness  of  God. 

6.  The  common  definition  given  of  anger,  is  an 


40       ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

instance  of  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  philosophers, 
if  not  to  derive,  at  least  to  connect  the  emotions 
of  which  we  have  been  made  susceptible  with 
certain  anterior  or  higher  principles  of  our  nature. 
Dr.  Reid  tells  us  that  the  proper  object  of  resent- 
ment is  an  injury ;  and  that  as  "no  man  can  have 
the  notion  of  injustice,  without  having  the  notion 
of  justice,"  then,  "  if  resentment  be  natural  to  man, 
the  notion  of  justice  must  be  no  less  natural."* 
And  Dr.  Brown  defines  anger  to  be  "  that  emotion 
of  instant  displeasure,  which  arises  from  the  feeling 
of  injury  done  or  the  discovery  of  injury  intended, 
or,  in  many  cases,  from  the  discovery  of  the  mere 
omission  of  good  offices  to  which  we  conceived 
ourselves  entitled,  though  this  very  omission  may, 
of  itself,  be  regarded  as  a  species  of  injury."  Now 
the  sense  of  injury  implies  a  sense  of  its  opposite — 
a  sense  of  justice,  therefore,  or  the  conception  of 
a  moral  standard  from  which  the  injury  that  has 
awakened  the  resentment,  is  felt  to  be  a  deviation. 
But  as  nothing  ought  to  form  part  of  a  definition, 
which  is  not  indispensable  to  the  thing  denned,  it 
would  appear,  as  if,  in  the  judgment  of  both  these 
philosophers,  all  who  were  capable  of  anger  must 
also  have,  to  a  certain  degree,  a  capacity  of  moral 


*  In  glaring  contradiction  to  this,  is  Dr.  Reid's  own  affirmation 
regarding  the  brutes.  He  says,  "that  conscience  is  peculiar  to 
man,  we  see  no  vestige  of  it  in  the  brute  animals.  It  is  one  of 
those  prerogatives  by  which  we  are  raised  above  them."  But 
animals  are  most  abundantly  capable  of  anger — even  of  that 
which,  by  a  very  general  definition,  is  said  to  be  the  emotion  that 
is  awakened  by  a  sense  of  injury,  which  sense  of  injury  must 
imply  in  it  the  sense  of  its  opposite,  even  of  justice,  and  so  land 
us  in  the  conclusion  that  brutes  are  capable  of  moral  conception, 
or  that  they  have  a  conscience. 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  41 

judgment  or  moral  feeling.  The  property  of 
resenting  a  hurt  inflicted  upon  ourselves,  would,  at 
this  rate,  argue,  in  all  cases,  a  perception  of  what  the 
moral  and  equitable  adjustment  would  be  between 
ourselves  and  others.  Now,  that  these  workings  of  a 
moral  nature  are  essential  to  the  feeling  of  anger,  is 
an  idea  which  admits  of  most  obvious  and  decisive 
refutation — it  being  an  emotion  to  which  not  only 
infants  are  competent,  anterior  to  the  first  dawnings 
of  their  moral  nature  ;  but  even  idiots,  with  whom 
this  nature  is  obliterated,  or  still  more  the  inferior 
animals  who  want  it  altogether.  There  must  be 
a  sense  of  annoyance  to  originate  the  feeling ;  but 
a  sense  of  injury,  implying,  as  it  does,  a  power  of 
moral  judgment  or  sensibility,  can  be  in  no  way 
indispensable  to  an  emotion,  exemplified  in  its  utmost 
force  and  intensity  by  sentient  creatures,  in  whom 
there  cannot  be  detected  even  the  first  rudiments 
of  a  moral  nature.  Two  dogs,  when  fighting  for  a 
bone,  make  as  distinct  and  declared  an  exhibition 
of  their  anger,  as  two  human  beings  when  disputing 
about  the  boundary  of  their  contiguous  fields. 
The  emotion  flashes  as  unequivocally  from  any  of 
the  inferior,  as  it  does  from  the  only  rational  and 
moral  species  on  the  face  of  our  globe ;  as  in  the 
vindictive  glare  of  an  infuriated  bull,  or  of  a  lioness 
robbed  of  her  whelps,  and  who  as  if  making 
proclamation  of  her  wrongs,  gives  forth  her  deep 
and  reiterated  cry  to  the  echoes  of  the  wilderness. 
It  is  an  emotion,  in  fact,  which  seems  coextensive, 
not  only  with  moral,  but  with  physical  sensation. 
And,  if  any  faith  can  be  placed  in  the  physiognomy, 
or  the  natural  signs,  by  which  irrational  creatures 


42   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

represent  what  passes  within  them;  this  passion 
announces  itself  as  vividly  and  discernibly  in  the 
outcries  of  mutual  resentment  which  ring  throu^h- 
out  the  amplitudes  of  savage  and  solitary  nature, 
as  in  the  contests  of  civilized  man. 

7.  The  truth,  then,  seems  to  be,  that  the  office 
of  the  moral  faculty  is,  not  to  originate,  but  rather 
to  confine  and  qualify  and  regulate  this  emotion. 
Anger,  if  we  but  study  its  history  and  actual 
exhibitions,  will  be  found  the  primary  and  the 
natural  response  to  a  hurt  or  harm  or  annoyance 
of  any  sort  inflicted  on  us  by  others ;  and,  as  such, 
may  be  quite  expansive  and  unrestrained  and  open 
to  excitation  from  all  points  of  the  compass — 
anterior  to  and  apart  from  any  consideration  of  its 
justice,  or  whether  in  the  being  who  called  it  forth, 
there  have  been  the  purpose  or  not  of  violating  our 
rights.  Infants  are  fully  capable  of  the  feeling, 
long  before  they  have  a  notion  of  equity,  or  of 
what  is  rightfully  their  own  and  rightfully  another's. 
The  anger  of  animals,  too,  is,  in  like  manner, 
destitute  of  that  moral  ingredient,  which  the  defi- 
nitions we  have  quoted  suppose  indispensable  to 
the  formation  of  it.  And  yet  their  emitted  sounds 
have  the  very  expression  of  fierceness,  that  we 
meet  with  so  often  among  the  fellows  of  our  own 
species.  The  provocation,  the  resentment,  the 
kindling  glance  of  hostility,  the  gradual  heightening 
of  the  wrath,  its  discharge  in  acts  of  mutual  violence, 
and  lastly,  its  glutted  satisfaction  in  the  flight  and 
even  the  death  of  the  adversary — these  are  all  indi- 
cative of  kindred  workings  within,  that  have  their 
outward  vent  in  a  common  and  kindred  physiog- 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  43 

nomy,  between  him  who  is  styled  the  lord  of  the 
creation,  and  those  beneath  his  feet,  who  are 
conceived  to  stand  at  a  distance  that  scarcely 
admits  of  comparison  in  the  phenomena  of  their 
nature.  Even  man,  in  the  full  growth  of  his 
rational  and  moral  nature,  will  often  experience  the 
outbreakings  of  an  anger  merely  physical ;  as,  to 
state  one  instance  out  of  the  many,  may  be 
witnessed  in  the  anger  wreaked  by  him  on  the 
inferior  animals,  when,  all  unconscious  of  injury  to 
him,  theyr  enter  upon  his  fields,  or  damage  the  fruit 
of  his  labours.  The  object  of  a  just  resentment 
towards  others,  is  the  proposed  injustice  of  others 
towards  us ;  and,  so  far  from  purposing  the  injustice, 
animals  have  not  even  the  faculty  of  conceiving  it. 
The  moral  consideration,  then,  does  not  enter  as  a 
constituent  part  into  all  resentment.  It  is  rather 
a  superadded  quality  which  designates  a  species  of 
it.  It  is  not  the  epithet  which  characterizes  all 
anger,  but  is  limited  to  a  certain  kind  of  it.  It 
may  be  as  proper  to  say  of  one  anger  that  it  is  just, 
and  of  another  that  justice  or  morality  has  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it — as  it  is  to  say  of  one  blow 
by  the  hand  that  it  has  been  rightfully  awarded, 
and  of  another  blow  that  such  a  moral  characteristic 
is  wholly  inapplicable.  Morality  may  at  times 
characterize  both  the  mental  feeling,  and  the  muscu- 
lar performance ;  but  it  should  be  as  little  identified 
with  the  one  as  with  the  other.  And  however 
much  analysts  may  have  succeeded  on  other  occa- 
sions, in  reducing  to  sameness  what  appeared  to 
be  separate  constituents  of  our  nature,  certain  it 
is,  that  anger  cannot  thus  be  regarded  as  a  resulting 


44     ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

manufacture  from  any  of  its  higher  principles.  It 
forms  a  distinct  and  original  part  of  our  constitution, 
of  which  morality,  whenever  it  exists  and  has  the 
predominance,  might  take  the  direction,  without 
being  at  all  essential  to  the  presence  or  operation 
of  it.  So  far  from  this,  it  is  nowhere  exhibited  in 
greater  vivacity  and  distinctness  than  by  those  crea- 
tures who  possess  but  an  animal,  without  so  much  as 
the  germ,  or  the  rudest  elements  of  a  moral  nature. 
8.  Anger  then  is  an  emotion  that  may  rage  and 
tumultuate  in  a  bosom  into  which  one  moral  concep- 
tion has  never  entered.  For  its  excitement  nothing 
more  seems  necessary  than  to  thwart  any  desire 
however  unreasonable,  or  to  disappoint  any  one 
object  which  the  heart  may  chance  to  be  set  upon. 
So  far  from  a  sense  of  justice  being  needful  to 
originate  this  emotion — it  is  the  man  who,  utterly 
devoid  of  justice,  would  monopolize  to  himself  all 
that  lies  within  the  visible  horizon,  who  is  most 
exposed  to  its  visitations.  He  is  the  most  vulner- 
able to  wrath  from  every  point  of  the  vast  circum- 
ference around  him — who,  conceiving  the  Universe 
to  be  made  for  himself  alone,  is  most  insensible  to 
the  rights  and  interests  of  other  men.  It  is  in  fact 
because  he  is  so  unfurnished  with  the  ideas  of 
justice,  that  he  is  so  unbridled  in  resentment. 
Justice  views  the  world  and  all  its  interests  as 
already  partitioned  among  the  various  members  of 
the  human  population,  each  occupying  his  own 
little  domain  ;  and,  instead  of  permitting  anger  to 
expatiate  at  random  over  the  universal  face  of 
things,  justice  would  curb  and  over-rule  its  ebulli- 
tions in  the  bosom  of  every  individual,  till  a  trespass 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  45 

0 

was  made  within  the  limits  of  that  territory  which 
is  properly  and  peculiarly  his  own.  In  other 
words,  it  is  the  office  of  this  virtue,  not  to  inspire 
anger,  but  to  draw  landmarks  and  limitations 
around  it ;  and,  so  far  from  a  high  moral  principle 
originating  this  propensity,  it  is  but  an  animal 
propensity,  restrained  and  kept  within  check  and 
confinement  at  the  bidding  of  principle. 

9.  The  distinction  between  reflective  and  unre- 
flective  anger  did  not  escape  the  notice  of  the 
sagacious  Butler,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  following 
passages  of  a  sermon  upon  resentment "  Resent- 
ment is  of  two  kinds — hasty  and  sudden,  or  settled 
and  deliberate.  The  former  is  called  anger  and 
often  passion,  which,  though  a  general  word,  is 
frequently  appropriated  and  confined  to  the  particu- 
lar feeling,  sudden  anger,  as  distinct  from  deliberate 
resentment  malice  and  revenge."  "  Sudden  anger 
upon  certain  occasions  is  mere  instinct,  as  merely 
so,  as  the  disposition  to  close  our  eyes  upon  the 
apprehension  of  something  falling  into  them,  and 
no  more  necessarily  implies  any  degree  of  reason. 
I  say  necessarily,  for,  to  be  sure,  hasty  as  well  as 
deliberate  anger,  may  be  occasioned  by  injury  or 
contempt,  in  which  cases  reason  suggests  to  our 
thoughts  the  injury  and  contempt  which  is  the 
occasion  of  the  emotion:  But  I  am  speaking  of 
the  former,  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  latter.  The  only  way  in  which  our  reason 
and  understanding  can  raise  anger,  is  by  represent- 
ing to  our  mind  an  injustice  or  injury  of  some  kind 
or  other.  Now  momentary  anger  is  frequently 
raised,  not  only  without  any  rule,  but  without  any 


46       ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

reason;  that  is,  without  any  appearance  of  injury  as 
distinct  from  hurt  or  pain.  It  cannot,  I  suppose, 
be  thought  that  this  passion  in  infants  and  the 
lower  species  of  animals,  and  which  is  often  seen  in 
man  towards  them,  it  cannot,  I  say,  be  imagined 
that  these  instances  of  this  emotion  are  the  effect 
of  reason  :  no,  they  are  occasioned  by  mere  sensa- 
tion and  feeling.  It  is  opposition,  sudden  hurt, 
violence  which  naturally  excites  this  passion ;  and 
the  real  demerit  or  fault  of  him  who  offers  that 
violence,  or  is  the  cause  of  that  opposition  or  hurt, 
does  not  in  many  cases  so  much  as  come  into 
thought."  "  The  reason  and  end  for  which  man 
was  made  thus  liable  to  this  emotion,  is  that  he 
might  be  better  qualified  to  prevent,  and  likewise 
or  perhaps  chiefly  to  resist  and  defeat  sudden  force, 
violence,  and  opposition,  considered  merely  as  such, 
and  without  regard  to  the  fault  or  demerit  of  him 
who  is  the  author  of  them  ;  yet  since  violence  may 
be  considered  in  this  other  and  further  view,  as 
implying  fault,  and  since  injury  as  distinct  from  harm 
may  raise  sudden  anger,  sudden  anger  may  likewise 
accidentally  serve  to  prevent  or  remedy  such  fault 
and  injury.  But  considered  as  distinct  from  settled 
anger,  it  stands  in  our  nature  for  self-defence,  andnot 
for  the  administration  of  justice.  There  are  plainly 
C3ces,  and  in  the  uncultivated  parts  of  the  world, 
and  where  regular  governments  are  not  formed  they 
frequently  happen,  in  which  there  is  no  time  for 
considering,  and  yet  to  be  passive  is  certain  de- 
struction, in  which  sudden  resistance  is  the  only 
security." — It  is  an  exceeding  good  instance  that 
Bishop   Butler  gives  of  the  distinction  between 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  47 

instinctive  and  what  may  be  called  rational  anger, 
when  he  specifies  the  anger  that  we  often  feel 
towards  the  inferior  animals.  There  is  properly 
no  injury  done,  where  there  is  no  injury  intended. 
And  he  who  is  incapable  of  conceiving  what  an 
injury  is,  is  not  a  rightful  object  for  at  least  any 
moral  resentment.  But  that  there  is  what  may 
be  called  a  physical  as  well  as  a  moral  resentment, 
is  quite  palpable  from  the  positive  wrath  which  is 
felt  when  any  thing  untoward  or  hurtful  is  done 
to  us  even  by  the  irrational  creatures.  The  men 
who  use  them  as  instruments  of  service  often  dis- 
charge the  most  outrageous  wrath  upon  them — . 
acting  the  part  of  ferocious  tyrants  towards  these 
wretched  victims  of  their  cruelty.  When  a  combat 
takes  place  between  man  and  one  of  the  inferior 
animals,  there  is  a  resentment  felt  by  the  former 
just  as  keen  and  persevering,  as  if  it  were  between 
two  human  combatants.  This  makes  it  quite 
obvious  that  there  may  be  anger  without  any  sense 
of  designed  injury  on  the  part  of  him  who  is  the 
object  of  it.  Even  children,  idiots,  lunatics,  might 
all  be  the  objects  of  such  a  resentment. 

10.  The  final  cause  of  this  emotion  in  the 
inferior  animals  is  abundantly  obvious.  It  stimu- 
lates and  ensures  resistance  to  that  violence,  which, 
if  not  resisted,  would  often  terminate  in  the  de- 
struction of  its  object.  And  it  probably  much 
oftener  serves  the  purpose  of  prevention  than  of 
defence.  The  first  demonstration  of  a  violence  to 
be  offered  on  the  one  hand,  when  met  by  the  pre- 
paration and  the  counter-menace  of  an  incipient 
resentment    on    the   other,   not  only  repels   the 


48   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

aggression  after  it  has  begun,  but  still  more  fre- 
quently, we  believe,  through  the  reaction  and 
restraint  of  fear  on  the  otherwise  attacking  party, 
prevents  the  aggression  from  being  made.  The 
stout  and  formidable  antagonists  eye  each  other 
with  a  sort  of  natural  respect;  and,  as  if  by  a 
common  though  tacit  consent,  wisely  abstain  on 
either  side  from  molestation,  and  pass  onward  with- 
out a  quarrel.  It  is  thus  that  many  a  fierce  con- 
test is  forborne,  which,  but  for  the  operation  of 
anger  on  the  one  side,  and  fear  upon  the  other, 
would  most  certainly  have  been  entered  upon. 
And  so  by  a  system,  or  machinery  of  reciprocal 
checks  and  counteractives,  and  where  the  mental 
affections  too  perform  the  part  of  essential  forces, 
there  is  not  that  incessant  warfare  of  extermination 
which  might  have  depopulated  the  world.  And 
here  we  might  observe,  that,  in  studying  that 
balance  of  powers  and  of  preserving  influences, 
which  obtains  even  in  a  commonwealth  of  brutes, 
the  uses  of  a  mental  are  just  as  palpable  as  those  of 
a  material  collocation.  The  anger  which  prompts 
to  the  resistance  of  aggression  is  as  obviously 
inserted  by  the  hand  of  a  contriver,  as  are  the 
horns  or  the  bristles  or  any  other  defensive  weapons 
wherewith  the  body  of  the  animal  is  furnished. 
The  fear  which  wings  the  flight  of  a  pursued 
animal  is  as  obviously  intended  for  its  safety,  as  is 
its  muscular  conformation  or  capacity  for  speed. 
The  affection  of  a  mother  for  her  young  points  as 
intelligibly  to  a  designer's  care  for  the  preservation 
of  the  species,  as  does  that  apparatus  of  nourish- 
ment wherewith  nature  hath  endowed  her.     The 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  49 

mother's  fondness  supplies  as  distinct  and  power- 
ful an  argument  as  the  mother's  milk — or,  in  other 
words,  a  mental  constitution  might,  as  well  as  a 
physical  constitution,  be  pregnant  with  the  indica- 
tions of  a  God. 

11.  But  to  return  to  the  special  affection  of 
anger,  with  a  reference  more  particularly  to  its 
workings  in  our  own  species,  where  we  have  the 
advantage  of  nearer  and  distincter  observation. 
We  must  be  abundantly  sensible  of  the  pain  which 
there  is,  not  merely  in  the  feeling  of  resentment, 
when  it  burns  and  festers  within  our  own  hearts, 
but  also  in  being  the  objects  of  another's recentment. 
They  are  not  the  effects  only  of  his  anger  that 
we  are  afraid  of ;  we  are  afraid  of  the  anger  itself, 
of  but  the  looks  and  the  words  of  angry  violence, 
though  we  should  be  perfectly  secure  from  all  the 
deeds  of  violence.  The  simple  displeasure  of 
another  is  formidable,  though  no  chastisement  what- 
ever shall  follow  upon  it.  We  are  so  constituted, 
that  we  tremble  before  the  frown  of  an  offended 
countenance,  and  perhaps  as  readily  as  we  would 
under  the  menace  of  an  uplifted  arm ;  and  would 
often  make  as  great  a  sacrifice  to  shun  the  moral 
discomfort  of  another's  wrath,  as  to  shun  the 
physical  infliction  which  his  wrath  might  impel  him 
to  lay  upon  us.  It  is  thus  that  where  there  is  no 
strength  for  any  physical  infliction,  still  there  may 
be  a  power  of  correction  that  amply  makes  up  for 
it,  in  the  rebuke  of  an  indignant  eye  or  an  indig- 
nant voice.  This  goes  far  to  repair  the  inequalities 
of  muscular  force  among  men  ;  and  forms  indeed 
a  most  important  mound  of  defence  against  the 

VOL.  II.  C 


50   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

effervescence  and  the  outbreakings  of  brute  violence 
in  society.  It  is  incalculable  how  much  we  owe 
to  this  influence  for  the  peace  and  courteousness 
that  obtain  in  every  neighbourhood.  The  more 
patent  view  of  anger  is,  that  it  is  an  instrument  of 
defence  against  the  aggressions  of  violence  or 
injustice ;  and  by  which  they  are  kept  in  check, 
from  desolating,  as  they  otherwise  would,  the  face 
of  society.  But  it  not  only  operates  as  a  corrective 
against  the  outrages  that  are  actually  made.  It 
has  a  preventive  operation  also ;  and  we  are  wholly 
unable  to  say,  in  how  far  the  dread  of  its  forth- 
breaking,  serves  to  soften  and  to  subdue  human 
intercourse  into  those  many  thousand  decencies  of 
mutual  forbearance  and  complaisance,  by  which  it 
is  gladdened  and  adorned.  There  is  a  recoil  from 
anger  in  the  heart  of  every  man  when  directed 
against  himself;  and  many  who  would  disdain 
to  make  one  sacrifice  by  which  to  appease  it,  after 
it  had  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  of  hostility,  will 
in  fact  make  one  continued  sacrifice  of  their  tone 
and  manner  and  habit,  that  it  may  not  be  awakened 
out  of  its  slumbers.  It  were  difficult  to  compute 
how  much  we  are  indebted,  for  the  blandness  and 
the  amenity  of  human  companionships,  to  the 
consciousness  of  so  many  sleeping  fires,  in  readiness 
to  blaze  forth,  at  the  touch  or  on  the  moment  of 
any  provocation  being  offered.  We  doubt  not, 
that,  in  military  and  fashionable,  and  indeed  in  all 
society,  it  acts  as  a  powerful  restraint  on  every 
thing  that  is  offensive.  The  domineering  insolence 
of  those  who,  with  the  instrument  of  anger  too, 
would  hold  society  in  bondage,  is  most  effectually 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  51 

arrested,  when  met  by  an  anger  which  throws 
back  the  fear  upon  themselves,  and  so  quiets  and 
composes  all  their  violence.  It  is  thus  that  a 
balance  is  maintained,  without  which  human  society- 
might  go  into  utter  derangement;  and  without 
which  too,  even  the  animal  creation  might  lose  its 
stability  and  disappear.  And  there  is  a  kind  of 
moral  power  in  the  anger  itself,  that  is  separate 
from  the  animal  or  the  physical  strength  which 
it  puts  into  operation ;  and  which  invests  with 
command,  or  at  least  provides  with  defensive 
armour  those  who  would  otherwise  be  the  most 
helpless  of  our  species — so  that  decrepid  age  or 
feeble  womanhood  has  by  the  mere  rebuke  of  an 
angry  countenance  made  the  stoutest  heart  to 
tremble  before  them.  It  is  a  moral  force,  by  which 
the  inequalities  of  muscular  force  are  repaired ; 
and,  while  itself  a  firebrand  and  a  destroyer,  yet, 
by  the  very  terror  of  its  ravages,  which  it  diffuses 
among  all,  were  it  to  stalk  abroad  and  at  large 
over  the  world — does  it  contribute  to  uphold  the 
pacific  virtues  among  men. 

12.  When  the  anger  of  one  individual  in  a 
household  is  the  terror  of  the  rest,  then  that 
individual  may  become  the  little  despot  of  the 
establishment ;  and  thus  it  is  that  often  the  feeblest 
of  them  all  in  muscular  strength  may  wield  a 
domestic  tyranny  by  which  the  stoutest  is  over- 
powered. But  when  the  anger  of  this  one  is 
fortunately  met  by  the  spirit  and  resolution  of 
another,  then,  kept  at  bay  with  its  own  weapon, 
it  is  neutralized  into  a  state  of  innocence.  It  is 
not  necessary  for  the  production   of  this  effei?* 


52   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

that  the  parties  ever  should  have  come  to  the 
extremity  of  an  open  and  declared  violence.  If 
there  be  only  a  mutual  consciousness  of  each  other's 
energy  of  passion  and  of  purpose,  then  a  mutual 
awe  and  mutual  forbearance  may  be  the  result  of 
it.  And  thus  it  is,  that,  by  the  operation  of  these 
reciprocal  checks  in  a  family,  the  peace  and  order 
of  it  may  be  securely  uph olden.  We  have  witnessed 
how  much  a  wayward  and  outrageous  temper  has 
been  sweetened,  by  the  very  presence  in  the  same 
mansion,  of  one  who  could  speak  again,  and  would 
not  succumb  to  any  unreasonable  violence.  The 
violence  is  abated.  And  we  cannot  compute  how 
much  it  is  that  the  blandness  and  the  mutual 
complaisance  which  obtain  in  society,  are  due  to 
the  secret  dread  in  which  men  stand  of  each  other's 
irritation ;  or,  in  other  words,  little  do  we  know  to 
what  extent,  the  smile  and  the  courteousness  and 
the  urbanity  of  civilized  life,  that  are  in  semblance 
so  many  expressions  of  human  benevolence,  may, 
really  and  substantially,  be  owing  to  the  fears  -of 
human  selfishness.  Were  this  speculation  pursued, 
it  might  lead  to  a  very  humiliating  estimate  indeed 
of  the  virtue  of  individuals — though  we  cannot  but 
admire  the  wisdom  of  that  economy,  by  which,  even 
without  virtue,  individuals  may  be  made,  through 
the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of  their  emotions, 
to  form  the  materials  of  a  society  that  can  stand. 
Anger  does  in  private  life,  what  the  terrors  of  the 
penal  code  do  in  the  community  at  large.  It  acts 
with  salutary  influence,  in  a  vast  multiplicity  of 
cases,  which  no  law  could  possibly  provide  for; 
and  where  the  chastisements  of  law,  whether  in 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  53 

their  corrective  or  preventive  influence,  cannot 
reach.  The  good  of  a  penal  discipline  in  society- 
extends  far  and  wide  beyond  the  degree  in  which 
it  is  actually  inflicted ;  and  many  are  the  pacific 
habits  of  a  neighbourhood,  that  might  be  ascribed, 
not  to  the  pacific  virtues  of  the  men  who  compose 
it,  but  to  the  terror  of  those  consequences  which 
all  men  know  would  ensue  upon  their  violation. 
And  it  is  just  so  of  anger,  in  the  more  frequent 
and  retired  intercourse  of  private  life.  The  good 
which  it  does  by  the  fear  of  its  ebullitions  is 
greater  far  than  all  which  is  done  by  the  actual 
ebullitions  themselves.  But  we  cannot  fail  to 
perceive  that  the  amount  of  service  which  is  done 
in  this  way  to  the  species  at  large,  must  all  be 
regarded  as  a  deduction  from  the  amount  of  credit 
which  is  due  to  the  individuals  who  belong  to  it. 
We  have  already  remarked  on  the  propensity  of 
moralists  to  accredit  the  wisdom  of  man  with 
effects,  which,  as  being  provided  for  not  by  any 
care  or  reflection  of  ours,  but  by  the  operation 
of  constitutional  instincts — are  more  properly  and 
immediately  to  be  ascribed  to  the  wisdom  of  God. 
And  in  like  manner,  there  is  a  propensity  in 
moralists  to  accredit  the  wisdom  of  man  with 
effects,  which,  as  being  provided  for  not  by  any 
consciousness  or  exercise  of  principle  on  our  part, 
but  by  the  operation  still  of  constitutional  instincts 
— are  more  properly  and  immediately  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  goodness  of  God.* 

13.   There  is  another  special  affection  which  we 

*  The  following  extract  from  Brown  tends  well  to  illustrate  one 
of  the  final  causes  for  the  implantation  of  this  principle  in  our 


54   ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

feel  more  particularly  induced  to  notice,  from  its 
palpable  effect  in  restraining  the  excess  of  one  of 
nature's  strongest  appetites.  Its  position  in  the 
mental  system  reminds  one  of  the  very  obvious 
adaptation  to  each  other  of  the  antagonist  muscles 
in  anatomy.  We  allude  to  the  operation  of  shame 
between  the  sexes,  considered  as  a  check  or 
counteractive  to  the  indulgence  of  passion  between 
the  sexes.  The  former  is  as  clear  an  instance 
of  moral,  as  the  latter  is  of  physical  adaptation. 
And  in  their   adjustment  the  one  to   the  other, 

constitution. — "  What  human  wants  required,  that  all-foreseeing" 
Power,  who  is  the  guardian  of  our  infirmities,  has  supplied  to 
human  weakness.  There  is  a  principle  in  our  mind,  which  is  to 
us  like  a  constant  protector,  which  may  slumber,  indeed,  but 
which  slumber3  only  at  seasons  when  its  vigilance  would  be 
useless,  which  awakes  therefore,  at  the  first  appearance  of  unjust 
intention,  and  which  becomes  more  watchful  and  more  vigorous, 
in  proportion  to  the  violence  of  the  attack  which  it  has  to  dread. 
What  should  we  think  of  the  providence  of  nature,  if,  when 
aggression  was  threatened  against  the  weak  and  unarmed,  at  a 
distance  from  the  aid  of  others,  there  were  instantly  and  uniformly, 
by  the  intervention  of  some  wonder-working  power,  to  rush 
into  the  hand  of  the  defenceless  a  sword  or  other  weapon  of 
defence  ?  And  yet  this  would  be  but  a  feeble  assistance,  if  com- 
pared with  that  which  we  receive  from  the  simple  emotions  which 
Heaven  has  caused  to  rush,  as  it  were,  into  our  mind  for  repelling 
every  attack.  What  would  be  a  sword  in  the  trembling  hand  of 
the  infirm,  of  the  aged,  of  him  whose  pusillanimous  spirit  shrinks 
at  the  very  appearance,  not  of  danger  merely,  but  even  of  the# 
arms  by  the  use  of  which  danger  might  be  averted,  and  to  whom 
consequently,  the  very  sword,  which  he  scarcely  knew  how  to 
grasp,  would  be  an  additional  causp  of  terror,  not  an  instrument 
of  defence  and  safety  ?  The  instant  anger  which  arises  does  more 
than  many  such  weapons.  It  gives  the  spirit,  which  knows  how 
to  make  a  weapon  of  every  thing,  or,  which  of  itself  does, 
without  a  weapon,  what  even  a  thunderbolt  would  be  powerless 
to  do,  in  the  shuddering  grasp  of  the  coward.  When  anger  arises, 
fear  is  gone  ;  there  is  no  coward,  for  nil  are  brave.  Even  bodily 
infirmity  seems  to  yield  to  it,  like  the  very  infirmities  of  the 
mind.  The  old  are,  for  the  moment,  young  again ;  the  weakest, 
vigorous."   Lect.  lxiii. 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  55 

we  observe  that  sort  of  exquisite  balancing,  which, 
perhaps  more  than  any  thing  else,  indicates  the 
wisdom  and  the  hand  of  a  master — as  if  when, 
in  the  execution  of  some  very  nice  and  difficult 
task,  he  is  managing  between  contrary  extremes, 
or  is  devising  in  just  proportion  for  contrary 
interests.  We  might  better  comprehend  the  design 
of  this  strikingly  peculiar  mechanism,  by  imagining 
of  the  two  opposite  instincts,  that  either  of  them 
was  in  excess,  or  either  of  them  in  defect.  Did 
the  constitutional  modesty  prevail  to  a  certain 
conceivable  extent — it  might  depopulate  the  world. 
Did  the  animal  propensity  preponderate,  on  the 
other  hand — it  might  land  the  world  in  an  anarchy 
of  unblushing  and  universal  licentiousness — to  the 
entire  breaking  up  of  our  present  blissful  economy, 
by  which  society  is  partitioned  into  separate  families, 
and,  with  the  interests  of  domestic  life  to  provide 
for,  and  its  affections  continually  to  recreate  the 
heart  in  the  midst  of  anxieties  and  labours,  man- 
kind are  kept  in  a  state  both  of  most  useful 
activity  and  of  greatest  enjoyment.  We  cannot 
conceive  a  more  skilful,  we  had  almost  said  a  more 
delicate  or  dexterous  adjustment,  than  the  one 
actually  fixed  upon — by  which,  in  the  first  instance, 
through  an  appetency  sufficiently  strong,  the  species 
is  upholden ;  and,  in  the  second  instance,  through 
the  same  appetency  sufficiently  restrained,  those 
hallowed  decencies  of  life  are  kept  unviolate, 
which  are  so  indispensable  to  all  order  and  to  all 
moral  gracefulness  among  men.  We  have  only  to 
conceive  the  frightful  aspect  which  society  would 
put  on,  did  unbridled  licentiousness  stalk  at  large 


56       ADAPTATIONS  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  TO 

as  a  destroyer,  and  rifle  every  home  of  those  virtues- 
which  at  once  guard  and  adorn  it.  The  actual 
and  the  beautiful  result,  when  viewed  in  connexion 
with  that  moral  force,  by  the  insertion  of  which  in 
our  nature  it  is  accomplished,  strongly  bespeaks  a 
presiding  intellect — which  in  framing  the  mechanism 
of  the  human  mind,  had  respect  to  what  was  most 
beneficent  and  best  for  the  mechanism  of  human 
society. 

14.  It  is  well  that  man  is  so  much  the  creature 
of  a  constitution  which  is  anterior  to  his  own 
wisdom  and  his  own  will,  and  of  circumstances 
which  are  also  anterior  to  his  wisdom  and  his  wilL 
It  would  have  needed  a  far  more  comprehensive 
view  than  we  are  equal  to,  both  of  what  was 
best  for  men  in  a  community  and  for  man  as 
an  individual,  to  have  left  a  creature  so  short- 
sighted or  of  such  brief  and  narrow  survey,  with 
the  fixing  either  of  his  own  principles  of  action  or 
of  his  relation  with  the  external  world.  That  con- 
stitutional shame,  that  quick  and  trembling  delicacy, 
a  prompt  and  ever-present  guardian,  appearing  as 
it  does  in  very  early  childhood,  is  most  assuredly 
not  a  result  from  any  anticipation  by  us,  either  of 
future  or  distant  consequences.  Even  the  moral 
sense  within  us,  does  not  speak  so  loudly  or  so 
distinctly  the  evil  of  this  transgression,  as  it  does 
of  falsehood,  or  of  injurious  freedom  with  the 
property  of  a  neighbour,  or  of  personal  violence. 
Other  forces  than  those  of  human  prudence  or 
human  principle  seem  to  have  been  necessary, 
for  resisting  a  most  powerful  and  destructive 
fascination,    which    never    is    indulged,    without 


THE  MORAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN.  57 

deterioration  to  the  whole  structure  of  the  moral 
character  and  constitution ;  and  which,  when  once 
permitted  to  lord  it  over  the  habits,  so  often 
terminates  in  the  cruel  disruption  of  families,  and 
the  irretrievable  ruin  and  disgrace  of  the  offender. 
It  is  not  by  any  prospective  calculation  of  ours, 
that  this  natural  modesty,  acting  as  a  strong  pre- 
cautionary check  against  evils  which  however 
tremendous,  we  are  too  heedless  to  reflect  upon, 
has  been  established  within  us.  It  is  directly 
implanted  by  one,  who  sees  the  end  from  the 
beginning ;  and  so  forms  altogether  a  most  palpable 
instance,  in  which  we  have  reason  to  congratulate 
ourselves,  that  the  well-being  of  man,  instead  of 
being  abandoned  to  himself,  has  been  placed  so 
immediately  under  the  management  of  better  and 
higher  hands. 

15.  There  are  many  other  special  affections 
in  our  nature — the  principal  of  which  will  fall  to 
be  noticed  in  succeeding  chapters ;  and  the  interests 
to  which  they  are  respectively  subservient  form  a 
natural  ground  of  division,  in  our  treatment  of 
them.  Certain  of  these  affections  stand  related 
to  the  civil,  and  certain  of  them  to  the  economic 
well-being  of  society;  and  each  of  these  sub- 
serviencies will  form  the  subject  of  a  separate 
argument. 


58  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 


CHAPTER  III. 

On  those  special  Affections  which  conduce  to  tlie 
civil  and  political  Well-being  of  Society. 

1.  The  first  step  towards  the  aggregation  of  men 
into  a  community,  or  the  first  departure  from  a 
state  of  perfect  isolation,  could  that  state  ever 
have  subsisted  for  a  single  day,  is  the  patriarchal 
arrangement.  No  sooner  indeed  is  the  infant 
creature  ushered  into  being,  than  it  is  met  by  the 
cares  and  the  caresses  of  those  who  are  around  it, 
and  who  have  either  attended  or  welcomed  its 
entry  on  this  scene  of  existence — as  if,  in  very 
proportion  to  the  extremity  of  its  utter  helplessness, 
was  the  strength  of  that  security  which  nature  hath 
provided,  in  the  workings  of  the  human  constitution, 
for  the  protection  of  its  weakness  and  the  supply 
of  all  its  little  wants.  That  there  should  be  hands 
to  receive  and  to  manage  this  tender  visitant,  is 
not  more  obviously  a  benevolent  adaptation,  than 
that  there  should  be  hearts  to  sympathize  with  its 
cries  of  impotency  or  distress.  The  maternal 
affection  is  as  express  an  instance  of  this  as  the 
maternal  nourishment — nor  is  the  inference  at  all 
weakened,  by  the  attempts,  even  though  they 
should  be  successful,  of  those  who  would  demon- 
strate of  this  universal  fondness  of  mothers,  that, 
instead  of  an  original  instinct,  it  is  but  a  derived 
or  secondary  law  of  our  nature.  Were  that 
analysis  as  distinct  and  satisfactory  as  it  is  doubtful 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  59 

and  obscure,  which  would  resolve  all  mental 
phenomena  into  the  single  principle  of  association 
— still  the  argument  would  stand.  A  secondary- 
law,  if  not  the  evidence  of  a  distinct  principle, 
requires  at  least  distinct  and  peculiar  circumstances 
for  its  development;  and  the  right  ordering  of 
these  for  a  beneficial  result,  is  just  as  decisively 
the  proof  and  the  characteristic  of  a  plan,  as  are 
the  collocations  of  Anatomy.  It  might  not  have 
been  necessary  to  endow  matter  with  any  new 
property  for  the  preparation  of  a  child's  aliment 
in  the  breast  of  its  mother — yet  the  framework  of 
that  very  peculiar  apparatus  by  which  the  milk  is 
secreted,  and  the  suckling's  mouth  provided  with 
a  duct  of  conveyance  for  the  abstraction  of  it,  is, 
in  the  many  fitnesses  of  time  and  place  and  com- 
plicated arrangement,  pregnant  with  the  evidence 
of  a  designer's  contrivance  and  a  designer's  care. 
And  in  like  manner,  though  it  should  be  estab- 
lished, that  the  affection  of  a  mother  for  her  young 
from  the  moment  of  their  birth,  instead  of  an  inde- 
pendent principle  in  her  nature,  was  the  dependent 
product  of  remembrances  and  feelings  which  had 
accumulated  during  the  period  of  gestation,  and 
were  at  length  fixed,  amidst  the  agonies  of  parturi- 
tion, into  the  strongest  of  all  her  earthly  regards 

the  argument  for  design  is  just  as  entire,  though, 
instead  of  connecting  it  with  the  peculiarity  of  an 
original  law,  we  connect  it  with  the  peculiarity  of 
those  circumstances  which  favour  the  development 
of  this  maternal  feeling,  in  the  form  of  a  secondary 
law.  There  is  an  infinity  of  conceivable  methods, 
by  which  the  successive  generations  of  men  might 


60  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

have  risen  into  being ;  and  our  argument  is  entire, 
if,  out  of  these,  that  method  has  been  selected, 
whereof  the  result  is  an  intense  affection  on  the 
part  of  mothers  for  their  offspring.  It  matters 
not  whether  this  universal  propensity  of  theirs  be 
a  primary  instinct  of  nature,  or  but  a  resulting 
habit  which  can  be  traced  to  the  process  which 
they  have  been  actually  made  to  undergo,  or  the 
circumstances  in  which  they  have  actually  been 
placed.  The  ordination  of  this  process,  the 
mandate  for  the  assemblage  and  collocation  of 
these  circumstances,  gives  a  distinct  and  decisive 
indication  of  an  ordaining  mind,  as  would  the  estab- 
lishment of  any  peculiar  law.  Let  it  suffice  once 
for  all  to  have  said  this — for  if  in  the  prosecution 
of  our  inquiry,  we  stopped  at  every  turn  to  enter- 
tain the  question,  whether  each  beneficial  tendency 
on  which  we  reasoned,  were  an  original  or  only  a 
secondary  principle  in  nature — we  should  be  con- 
stantly rushing  uncalled  into  the  mists  of  obscu- 
rity ;  and  fastening  upon  our  cause  an  element  of 
doubt  and  weakness,  which  in  no  wise  belongs  to  it. 
2.  The  other  affections  which  enter  into  the 
composition,  or  rather,  form  the  cement  of  a  family, 
are  more  obviously  of  a  derivative,  and  less  obviously 
of  an  instinctive  character,  than  is  that  strong 
maternal  affinity  which  meets  so  opportunely  with 
the  extreme  helplessness  of  its  objects,  that  but 
for  the  succour  and  sympathy  of  those  whose 
delight  it  is  to  cherish  and  sustain  them,  would 
perish  in  the  infancy  of  their  being.  However 
questionable  the  analysis  might  be,  which  would 
resolve  the  universal  fondness  of  mothers  for  their 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  61 

young  into  something  anterior — the  paternal  and 
brotherly  and  filial  affections  seem,  on  surer 
grounds,  and  which  are  accessible  to  observation, 
not  to  be  original  but  originated  feelings.  Inquirers, 
according  to  their  respective  tastes  and  tendencies, 
have  deviated  on  both  sides  of  the  evidence — that 
is,  either  to  an  excessive  and  hypothetic  simplifica- 
tion of  nature,  or  to  an  undue  multiplication  of  her 
first  principles.  And  certain  it  is,  that  when  told 
of  the  mystic  ties  which  bind  together  into  a  domestic 
community,  as  if  by  a  sort  of  certain  peculiar 
attraction,  all  of  the  same  kindred  and  the  same 
blood — we  are  reminded  of  those  occult  qualities, 
which,  in  the  physics  both  of  matter  and  of  mind, 
afforded  so  much  of  entertainment,  to  the  scholastics 
of  a  former  age.  But  with  the  adjustment  of  this 
philosophy  we  properly  have  no  concern.  It 
matters  not  to  our  argument  whether  the  result  in 
question  be  due  to  the  force  of  instincts  or  to  the 
force  of  circumstances, — any  more  than  whether, 
in  the  physical  system,  a  certain  beneficial  result 
may  be  ascribed  to  apt  and  peculiar  laws,  or  to 
apt  and  peculiar  collocations.  In  virtue  of  one  or 
other  or  both  of  these  causes,  we  behold  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  species  grouped  together — or,  as  it 
may  be  otherwise  expressed,  the  aggregate  mass 
of  the  species,  broken  asunder  into  distinct  families, 
and  generally  living  by  themselves,  each  family 
under  one  common  roof,  but  apart  from  all  the 
rest  in  distinct  habitations;  while  the  members  of 
every  little  commonwealth  are  so  linked  by 
certain  affections,  or  by  certain  feelings  of  recipro- 
cal obligation,  that  each  member  feels  almost  as 


62         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

intensely  for  the  wants  and  sufferings  of  the  rest  as 
he  would  for  his  own,  or  labours  as  strenuously  for 
the  sustenance  of  all  as  he  would  for  his  own  indi- 
vidual sustenance.  There  is  very  generally  a 
union  of  hearts,  and  still  oftener  a  union  of  hands, 
for  the  common  interests  and  provision  of  the 
household. 

3.  The  benefits  of  such  an  arrangement  are  too 
obvious  to  be  enumerated.  Even  though  the  law 
of  self-preservation  had  sufficed  in  those  cases  where 
the  individual  has  adequate  wisdom  to  devise,  and 
adequate  strength  to  provide  for  his  own  main- 
tenance— of  itself,  it  could  not  have  availed,  when 
this  strength  and  this  wisdom  are  wanting.  It  is 
in  the  bosom  of  families,  and  under  the  touch  and 
impulse  of  family  affections,  that  helpless  infancy 
is  nurtured  into  manhood,  and  helpless  disease  or 
age  have  the  kindliest  and  most  effective  succour 
afforded  to  them.  Even  when  the  strength  for 
labour,  instead  of  being  confined  to  one,  is  shared 
among  several  of  the  household,  there  is  often  an 
incalculable  benefit,  in  the  very  concert  of  their 
forces  and  community  of  their  gains — so  long,  for 
example,  as  a  brotherhood,  yet  advancing  towards 
maturity,  continue  to  live  under  the  same  roof,  and 
to  live  under  the  direction  of  one  authority,  or  by 
the  movement  of  one  will.  We  shall  not  expati- 
ate, either  on  the  enjoyment  that  might  be  had 
under  such  an  economy,  while  it  lasts,  in  the  sweets 
of  mutual  affection ;  oar  minutely  explain  how,  after 
the  economy  is  dissolved,  and  the  separate  members 
betake  themselves  each  to  his  own  way  in  the  world 
— the  duties  and  the  friendships  of  domestic  life  are 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  63 

not  annihilated  by  this  dispersion;  but,  under  the 
powerful  influence  of  a  felt  and  acknowledged 
relationship,  the  affinities  of  kindred  spread  and 
multiply  beyond  their  original  precincts,  to  the 
vast  increase  of  mutual  sympathy  and  aid  and  good 
offices  in  general  society.  It  will  not.  we  suppose, 
be  questioned — that  a  vastly  greater  amount  of 
good  is  done  by  the  instrumentality  of  others,  and 
that  the  instrumentality  itself  is  greatly  more  avail- 
able, under  the  family  system,  to  which  we  are 
prompted  by  the  strong  affections  of  nature,  than  if 
that  system  were  dissolved.  But  the  remarkable 
thing  is,  that  these  affections  had  to  be  provided,  as 
so  many  impellent  forces^ — guiding  men  onward  to 
an  arrangement  the  most  prolific  of  advantage  for 
the  whole,  but  which  no  care  or  consideration  of  the 
general  good  would  have  led  them  to  form.  This 
provision  for  the  wants  of  the  social  economy,  is 
analogous  to  that,  which  we  have  already  observed, 
for  the  wants  of  the  animal  economy.  Neither  of 
these  interests  was  confided  to  any  cold  generality, 
whether  of  principle  or  prudence.  In  the  one, 
the  strong  appetite  of  hunger  supplements  the 
deficiency  of  the  rational  principle  of  self-preserva- 
tion. In  the  other,  the  strong  family  affections 
supplement  the  deficiency  of  the  moral  principle  of 
general  benevolence.  Without  the  first,  the  requisite 
measures  would  not  have  been  taken  for  the  regular 
sustenance  of  the  individual.  Without  the  other, 
the  requisite  measures  would  not  have  been  taken 
for  the  diffused  sustenance  of  the  community  at  large. 
4.  Such  is  the  mechanism  of  human  society,  as 
it  comes  direct,  from  the  hand  of  nature  or  of 


64  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

nature's  God.  But  many  have  been  the  attempts 
of  human  wisdom  to  mend  and  to  meddle  with  it. 
Cosmopolitism,  in  particular,  has  endeavoured  to 
substitute  a  sort  of  universal  citizenship,  in  place 
of  the  family  affections — regarding  these  as  so  many 
disturbing  forces ;  because,  operating  only  as  incen- 
tives to  a  partial  or  particular  benevolence,  they 
divert  the  aim  from  that  which  should,  it  is  con- 
tended, be  the  object  of  every  enlightened  philan- 
thropist, the  general  and  greatest  good  of  the 
whole.  It  is  thus  that  certain  transcendental 
speculatists  would  cut  asunder  all  the  special  affini- 
ties of  our  nature,  in  order  that  men,  set  at  large 
from  the  ties  and  the  duties  of  the  domestic  relation- 
ship, might  be  at  liberty  to  prosecute  a  more 
magnificent  and  god-like  career  of  virtue ;  and,  in 
every  single  action,  have  respect,  not  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  individual,  but  to  the  well-being  of 
the  species.  And  thus  also,  friendship  and  patri- 
otism have  been  stigmatized,  along  with  the  family 
affections,  as  so  many  narrow-minded  virtues, 
which,  by  their  distracting  influence,  seduce  men 
from  that  all  comprehensive  virtue,  whose  constant 
study  being  the  good  of  the  world — a  happy  and 
regenerated  world,  it  is  the  fond  imagination  of 
some,  would  be  the  result  of  its  universal  preva- 
lence among  men. 

5.  Fortunately,  nature  is  too  strong  for  this 
speculation,  which,  therefore,  has  only  its  full 
being,  in  the  reveries  or  the  pages  of  those  who, 
in  authorship,  may  well  be  termed  the  philosophical 
novelists  of  our  race.  But,  beside  the  actual 
strength  of  those  special  propensities  in  the  heart 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  65 

of  man,  which  no  generalization  can  overrule,  there 
is  an  utter  impotency  in  human  means  or  human 
expedients,  for  carrying  this  hollow,  this  heartless 
generalization  into  effect.  It  is  easy  to  erect  into 
a  moral  axiom,  the  principle  of  greatest  happiness ; 
and  then,  on  the  strength  of  it,  to  denounce  all  the 
special  affections,  and  propose  the  substitution  of 
a  universal  affection  in  their  place.  But,  in  prose- 
cuting the  object  of  this  last  affection,  what  specific 
and  intelligible  thing  are  they  to  do  ?  How  shall 
they  go  about  it  ?  What  conventional  scheme 
shall  men  fall  upon  next  for  obtaining  the  maximum 
of  utility,  after  they  have  broken  loose,  each  from 
his  own  little  home,  and  have  been  emancipated 
from  those  intense  regards,  which  worked  so  effec- 
tively and  with  such  force  of  concentration  there  ? 
It  has  never  been  clearly  shown,  how  the  glorious 
simplifications  of  these  cosmopolites  admit  of  being 
practically  realized — whether  by  a  combination,  of 
which  the  chance  is  that  all  men  might  not  agree 
upon  it ;  or  by  each,  issuing  quixotically  forth  of 
his  own  habitation,  and  labouring  the  best  he  may 
to  realize  the  splendid  conception  by  which  he  is 
fired  and  actuated.  And  it  does  not  occur  to  those 
who  would  thus  labour  to  extirpate  the  special 
affections  from  our  nature,  that  it  is  in  the  indul- 
gence of  them  that  all  conceivable  happiness  lies ; 
and  that,  in  being  bereft  of  them,  we  should  be  in 
truth  bereft  of  all  the  means  and  materials  of  enjoy- 
ment. And  there  is  the  utmost  difference  in  point 
of  effect,  as  well  as  in  point  of  feeling,  between  the 
strong  love  wherewith  nature  hath  endued  us  for 
a  few  particular  men,  and  the  general  love  where- 


66         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

with  philosophers  would  inspire  us  for  man  in  the 
abstract — the  former  philanthropy  leading  to  a 
devoted  and  sustained  habit  of  well-directed  exer- 
tion, for  supplying  the  wants  and  multiplying  the 
enjoyments  of  every  separate  household ;  the  latter 
philanthropy,  at  once  indefinite  in  its  aim  and  in- 
tangible in  its  objects,  overlooking  every  man  just 
because  charging  itself  with  the  oversight  of  all 
men.  It  is  by  a  summation  of  particular  utilities 
which  each  man,  under  the  impulse  of  his  own  par- 
ticular affections,  contributes  to  the  general  good, 
that  nature  provides  for  the  happiness  of  the  world. 
But  ambitious  and  aspiring  man  would  take  the 
charge  of  this  happiness  upon  himself;  and  his 
first  step  would  be  to  rid  the  heart  of  all  its  special 
affections — or,  in  other  words,  to  unsettle  the  moral 
dynamics  which  nature  hath  established  there, 
without  any  other  moral  dynamics,  either  of  pre- 
cise direction  or  of  operative  force,  to  establish  in 
their  room.  After  having  paralyzed  all  the  ordi- 
nary principles  of  action,  he  would,  in  his  newly 
modelled  system  of  humanity,  be  able  to  set  up  no 
principle  of  action  whatever.  ,  His  wisdom,  when 
thus  opposed  to  the  wisdom  of  nature,  is  utterly 
powerless  to  direct,  however  much,  in  those  seasons 
of  delusion  when  the  merest  nonentities  and  names 
find  a  temporary  sway,  it  may  be  powerful  to 
destroy. 

6.  Now  there  is  nothing  which  so  sets  off  the 
superior  skill  of  one  artist,  as  the  utter  failure  of 
every  other  artist  in  his  attempts  to  improve  upon 
it.  And  so  the  failure  of  every  philanthropic  or 
political  experiment  which  proceeds  on  the  distrust 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  67 

of  nature's  strong  and  urgent  and  general  affections, 
may  be  regarded  as  an  impressive  while  experi- 
mental demonstration  for  the  matchless  wisdom  of 
nature's  God.  The  abortive  enterprises  of  wild 
yet  benevolent  Utopianism ;  the  impotent  and  hurt- 
ful schemes  of  artificial  charity  which  so  teem 
throughout  the  cities  and  parishes  of  our  land ;  the 
pernicious  legislation,  which  mars  instead  of  medi- 
cating, whenever  it  intermeddles  with  the  operations 
of  a  previous  and  better  mechanism  than  its  own 
— have  all  of  them  misgiven  only  because,  instead 
of  conforming  to  nature,  they  have  tried  to  divert 
her  from  her  courses,  or  have  thwarted  and  tra- 
versed the  strongest  of  her  implanted  tendencies. 
It  is  thus  that  every  attempt  for  taking  to  pieces, 
whether  totally  or  partially,  the  actual  framework 
of  society,  and  reconstructing  it  in  a  new  way  or 
on  new  principles — is  altogether  fruitless  of  good ; 
and  often  fruitful  of  sorest  evil  both  to  the  happi- 
ness and  virtue  of  the  commonwealth.  That 
economy  by  which  the  family  system  would  have 
been  entirely  broken  up ;  and  associated  men,  liv- 
ing together  in  planned  and  regulated  villages,  would 
have  laboured  for  the  common  good,  and  given  up 
their  children  wholly  undomesticated  to  a  common 
education — could  not  have  been  carried  into  effect, 
without  overbearing  the  parental  affection,  and  other 
strong  propensities  of  nature  besides;  and  so,  it 
was  stifled  in  embryo,  by  the  instant  revolt  of  nature 
against  it.  That  legislation,  which,  instead  of 
overbearing,  would  but  seduce  nature  from  her 
principles,  may  subsist  for  generations — yet  not 
without  such  distemper  to  society,  as  may  at  length 


68         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

amount  to  utter  disorganization.  And  this  is  pre- 
cisely the  mischief  which  the  pauperism  of  England 
hath  inflicted  on  the  habits  of  English  families.  It 
hath,  by  the  most  pernicious  of  all  bribery,  relaxed 
the  ties  and  obligations  of  mutual  relationship — 
exonerating  parents  on  the  one  hand  from  the  care 
and  maintenance  of  their  own  offspring ;  and  tempt- 
ing children  on  the  other  to  cast  off  the  parents 
who  gave  them  birth,  and,  instead  of  an  asylum 
gladdened  by  the  associations  and  sympathies  of 
home,  consigning  them  for  the  last  closing  years 
of  weakness  and  decrepitude  to  the  dreary  imprison- 
ment of  a  poor-house.  Had  the  beautiful  arrange- 
ments of  nature  not  been  disturbed,  the  relative  affec- 
tions which  she  herself  has  implanted  would  have 
been  found  strong  enough,  as  in  other  countries,  to 
have  secured,  through  the  means  of  a  domestic 
economy  alone,  a  provision  both  for  young  and  old, 
in  far  greater  unison  with  both  the  comfort  and 
the  virtue  of  families.  The  corrupt  and  demoral- 
izing system  of  England  might  well  serve  as  a 
lesson  to  philanthropists  and  statesmen,  of  the 
hazard,  nay  of  the  positive  and  undoubted  mischief, 
to  which  the  best  interests  of  humanity  are  exposed 
— when  they  traverse  the  processes  of  a  better 
mechanism  instituted  by  the  wisdom  of  God,  through 
the  operation  of  another  mechanism  devised  by  a 
wisdom  of  their  own. 

7.  And  those  family  relations  in  which  all  men 
necessarily  find  themselves  at  the  outset  of  life,  serve 
to  strengthen,  if  they  do  not  originate  certain  other 
subsequent  affections  of  wider  operation,  and  which 
bear  with  most  important  effect  on  the  state  and 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  69 

security  of  a  commonwealth.  Each  man's  house 
may  be  regarded  as  a  preparatory  school,  where  he 
acquires  in  boyhood,  those  habits  of  subordination 
and  dependence  and  reverence  for  superiors,  by 
which  he  all  the  more  readily  conforms  in  after-life, 
to  the  useful  gradations  of  rank  and  authority  and 
wealth  which  obtain  in  the  order  of  general  society. 
We  are  aware  of  a  cosmopolitism  that  would  unsettle 
those  principles  which  bind  together  the  larger 
commonwealth  of  a  state ;  and  that  too  with  still 
greater  force  and  frequency,  than  it  would  unsettle 
those  affections  which  bind  together  the  little  com- 
monwealth of  a  family.  It  is  easier  to  undermine 
in  the  hearts  of  subjects,  their  reverence  for  rank 
and  station ;  than  it  is  to  dissolve  the  ties  of  paren- 
tage and  brotherhood,  or  to  denaturalize  the  hearts 
of  children.  Accordingly  we  may  remember  those 
seasons,  when,  in  the  form  of  what  may  be  termed 
a  moral  epidemic,  a  certain  spirit  of  lawlessness 
went  abroad  upon  the  land ;  and  the  minds  of  men 
were  set  at  large  from  the  habit  of  that  homage 
and  respect,  which  in  more  pacific  times,  they, 
without  pusillanimity  and  in  spite  of  themselves, 
do  render  to  family  or  fortune  or  office  in  society. 
We  know  that  in  specific  instances,  an  adequate 
cause  is  too  often  given,  why  men  should  cast  off 
that  veneration  for  rank  by  which  they  are  natu- 
rally and  habitually  actuated — as,  individually, 
when  the  prince  or  the  noble,  however  elevated, 
may  have  disgraced  himself  by  his  tyranny  -or  his 
vices ;  or,  generally,  when  the  patrician  orders  of 
the  state  may  have  entered  into  some  guilty  com- 
bination of  force  and  fraud  against  the  liberties  of 


70         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

mankind,  and  outraged  nature  is  called  forth  to  a 
generous  and  wholesome  re-action  against  the 
oppressors  of  their  species.  This  is  the  revolt  of 
one  natural  principle  against  the  abuse  of  another. 
But  the  case  is  very  different — when,  instead  of  an 
hostility  resting  on  practical  grounds  and  justified 
by  the  abuses  of  a  principle,  there  is  a  sort  of  theo- 
retical yet  withal  virulent  and  inflamed  hostility 
abroad  in  the  land  against  the  principle  itself — 
when  wealth  and  rank  without  having  abused  their 
privileges,  are  made  per  se  the  objects  of  a  jealous 
and  resentful  malignity — when  the  people  all  reck- 
less and  agog,  because  the  dupes  of  designing  and 
industrious  agitators,  have  been  led  to  regard  every 
man  of  affluence  or  station  as  their  natural  enemy 
— and  when,  with  the  bulk  of  the  community  in  this 
attitude  of  stout  and  sullen  defiance,  authority  is 
weakened  and  all  the  natural  influences  of  rank 
and  wealth  are  suspended.  Now  nature  never 
gives  more  effectual  demonstration  of  her  wisdom, 
than  by  the  mischief  which  ensues  on  the  abjura- 
tion of  her  own  principles  ;  and  never  is  the  lesson 
thus  held  forth  more  palpable  and  convincing,  than 
when  respect  for  station  and  respect  for  office  cease 
to  be  operating  principles  in  society.  We  are 
abundantly  sensible  that  both  mighty  possessions 
and  the  honours  of  an  illustrious  ancestry  may  be 
disjoined  from  individual  talent  and  character — nay, 
that  they  may  meet  in  the  person  of  one  so  utterly 
weak  or  worthless,  as  that  our  reverence  because 
of  the  adventitious  circumstances  in  which  he  is 
placed,  may  be  completely  overborne  by  our  con- 
tempt either  for  the  imbecility  or  the  moral  turpi- 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.    '       71 

tude  by  which  he  is  deformed.  But  this  is  only 
the  example  of  a  contest  between  two  principles, 
and  of  a  victory  by  the  superior  over  the  inferior 
one.  We  are  not,  however,  because  of  the  infe- 
riority of  a  principle  to  lose  sight  of  its  existence ; 
or  to  betray  such  an  imperfect  discernment  and 
analysis  of  the  human  mind,  as  to  deny  the  reality 
of  any  one  principle,  because  liable  to  be  modified, 
or  kept  in  check,  or  even  for  the  time  rendered 
altogether  powerless,  by  the  interposition  and  the 
conflict  of  another  principle.  If,  on  the  one  hand, 
rank  may  be  so  disjoined  from  righteousness  as  to 
forfeit  all  its  claims  to  respect — on  the  other  hand, 
to  be  convinced  that  these  claims  are  the  objects  of 
a  natural  and  universal  acknowledgment,  and  have 
therefore  a  foundation  in  the  actual  constitution  of 
human  nature,  let  us  only  consider  the  effect,  when 
pre-eminent  rank  and  pre-eminent  or  even  but  fair 
and  ordinary  righteousness,  meet  together  in  the  per- 
son of  the  same  individual.  The  effect  of  such  a  com- 
position upon  human  feelings  may  well  persuade  us 
that,  while  a  respect  for  righteousness  admitted  by 
all  enters  as  one  ingredient,  a  respect  for  rank  has 
its  distinct  and  substantive  being  also  as  another 
ingredient.  We  have  the  former  ingredient  by 
itself  in  a  state  of  separation,  and  are  therefore 
most  sensible  of  its  presence,  when  the  object  of 
contemplation  is  a  virtuous  man.  But  we  are  dis- 
tinctly sensible  to  the  superaddition  of  the  latter 
ingredient,  when,  instead  of  a  virtuous  man,  the 
object  of  contemplation  is  a  virtuous  monarch — 
though  it  becomes  more  palpable  still,  when  it  too 
is  made  to  exist  in  a  state  of  separation,  which  it 


72      '  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

does,  when  the  monarch  is  neither  hateful  for  his 
vices  nor  very  estimable  for  his  virtues ;  but  stands 
forth  in  the  average  possession  of  those  moralities 
and  of  that  intellect  which  belong  to  common  and 
every  day  humanity.  Even  such  a  monarch  has 
only  to  appear  among  his  subjects;  and,  in  all 
ordinary  times,  he  will  be  received  with  the  greet- 
ings of  an  honest  and  heartfelt  loyalty,  when  any 
unwonted  progress  through  his  dominions  is  sure 
to  be  met  all  over  the  land,  by  the  acclamations  of 
a  generous  enthusiasm.  Even  the  sturdiest  dema- 
gogue, if  he  come  within  the  sphere  of  the  royal 
presence,  cannot  resist  the  infection  of  that  common 
sentiment  by  which  all  are  actuated ;  but,  as  if 
struck  with  a  moral  impotency,  he  also,  carried^ 
away  by  the  fascination,  is  constrained  to  feel  and 
to  acknowledge  its  influence.  Some  there  are, 
who  might  affect  to  despise  human  nature  for  such 
an  exhibition,  and  indignantly  exclaim  that  men 
are  born  to  be  slaves.  But  the  truth  is,  that  there 
is  nothing  prostrate,  nothing  pusillanimous  in  the 
emotion  at  all.  Instead  of  this,  it  is  a  lofty  chival- 
rous emotion,  of  which  the  most  exalted  spirits  are 
the  most  susceptible,  and  which  all  might  indulge 
without  any  forfeiture  of  their  native  or  becoming 
dignity.  We  do  not  affirm  of  this  respect  either 
for  the  sovereignty  of  an  empire,  or  for  the  chief- 
tainship of  a  province — that  it  forms  an  original  or 
constituent  part  of  our  nature.  It  is  enough  for 
our  argument,  if  it  be  a  universal  result  of  the  cir- 
cumstances in  every  land,  where  such  gradations 
of  power  and  property  are  established.  In  a 
word,  it  is  the  doing  of  nature,  and  not  of  man ; 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  73 

and  if  man,  in  the  proud  and  presumptuous  exer- 
cise of  his  own  wisdom,  shall  lift  his  rebel  hand 
against  the  wisdom  of  nature,  and  try  to  uproot 
this  principle  from  human  hearts — he  will  find  that 
it  cannot  be  accomplished,  without  tearing  asunder 
one  of  the  strongest  of  those  ligaments,  which  bind 
together  the  component  parts  of  human  society 
into  an  harmonious  and  well-adjusted  mechanism. 
And  it  is  then  that  the  wisdom  which  made  nature, 
will  demonstrate  its  vast  superiority  over  the  wisdom 
which  would  mend  it — when  the  desperate  experi- 
ment of  the  latter  has  been  tried  and  found  want- 
ing. There  are  certain  restraining  forces  (and 
reverence  for  rank  and  station  is  one  of  them) 
which  never  so  convincingly  announce  their  own 
importance  to  the  peace  and  stability  of  the  com- 
monwealth, as  in  those  seasons  of  popular  frenzy, 
when,  for  a  time,  they  are  slackened  or  suspended. 
For  it  is  then  that  the  vessel  of  the  state,  as  if 
slipped  from  her  moorings,  drifts  headlong  among 
the  surges  of  insurrectionary  violence,  till,  as  the 
effect  of  this  great  national  effervescence,  the  land 
mourns  over  its  ravaged  fields  and  desolated  fami- 
lies ;  when,  after  the  sweeping  anarchy  has  blown 
over  it,  and  the  sore  chastisement  has  been  under- 
gone, the  now  schooled  and  humbled  people  seek 
refuge  anew  in  those  very  principles,  which  they 
had  before  traduced  and  discarded :  And  it  will  be 
fortunate  if,  when  again  settled  down  in  the  quie- 
tude of  their  much  needed  and  much  longed-for 
repose,  there  be  not  too  vigorous  a  re-action  of 
those  conservative  influences,  which,  in  the  moment 
of  their  wantonness,  they  had  flung  so  recklessly 

VOL.  II*  D 


74         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

away— in  virtue  of  which  the  whips  may  become 
scorpions,  and  the  mild  and  well-balanced  monarchy 
may  become  a  grinding  despotism. 

8.  Next  to  the  wisdom  which  nature  discovers 
in  her  implantation  or  development  of  those  affec- 
tions, by  which  society  is  parcelled  down  into 
separate  families;  is  the  wisdom  which  she  discovers 
in  those  other  affections,  by  which  the  territory  of 
a  nation,  and  all  upon  it  that  admits  of  such  a 
distribution,  is  likewise  parcelled  and  broken  off 
into  separate  properties.  Both  among  the  analysts 
of  the  human  mind,  and  among  metaphysical  jurists 
and  politicians,  there  is  to  be  found  much  obscure 
and  unsatisfactory  speculation  respecting  those 
principles,  whether  elementary  or  complex,  by 
which  property  is  originated  and  by  which  property 
is  upholden.  We  are  not  called  to  enter  upon  any 
subtle  analysis  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  either 
what  that  is  which  gives  birth  to  the  possessory 
feeling  on  the  part  of  an  owner,  or  what  that  is 
which  leads  to  such  a  universal  recognition  and 
respect  for  his  rights  in  general  society.  It  will  be 
enough  if  we  can  evince  that  neither  of  these  is 
a  factitious  product,  devised  by  the  wisdom  or 
engendered  by  the  authority  of  patriots  and 
legislators,  deliberating  on  what  was  best  for  the 
good  and  order  of  a  community ;  but  that  both  of 
them  are  the  results  of  a  prior  wisdom,  employed, 
not  in  framing  a  constitution  for  a  state,  but  in 
framing  a  constitution  for  human  nature.  It  will 
suffice  to  demonstrate  this,  if  we  can  show,  that,  in 
ery  early  childhood,  there  are  germinated  both  a 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY,  75 

sense  of  property  and  a  respect  for  the  property  of 
others ;  and  that,  long  before  the  children  have 
been  made  the  subjects  of  any  artificial  training  on 
the  thing  in  question,  or  are  at  all  capable  of  any 
anticipation,  or  even  wish,  respecting  the  public 
and  collective  well-being  of  the  country  at  large. 
Just  as  the  affection  of  a  mother  is  altogether 
special,  and  terminates  upon  the  infant,  without 
any  calculation  as  to  the  superiority  of  the  family 
system  over  the  speculative  systems  of  the  cosmo- 
polites ;  and  just  as  the  appetite  of  hunger  impels 
to  the  use  of  food,  without  the  least  regard,  for 
the  time  being,  to  the  support  or  preservation  of 
the  animal  economy — so,  most  assuredly,  do  the 
desires  or  notions  of  property,  and  even  the 
principles  by  which  it  is  limited,  spring  up  in  the 
breasts  of  children,  without  the  slightest  apprehen- 
sion, on  their  part,  of  its  vast  importance  to  the 
social  economy  of  the  world.  It  is  the  provision, 
not  of  man,  but  of  God. 

9.  That  is  my  property,  to  the  use  and  enjoy- 
ment of  which  I,  without  the  permission  of  others, 
am  free,  in  a  manner  that  no  other  is ;  and  it  is 
mine  and  mine  only,  in  as  far  as  this  use  and 
enjoyment  are  limited  to  myself — and  others, 
apart  from  any  grant  or  permission  by  me,  are 
restrained  from  the  like  use  and  the  like  enjoyment. 
Now  the  first  tendency  of  a  child,  instead  of 
regarding  only  certain  things,  as  those  to  the  use 
and  enjoyment  of  which  it  alone  is  free,  is  to 
regard  itself  as  alike  free  to  the  use  and  en  joy  men 
of  all  things.  We  should  say  that  it  regards  the 
whole  of  external  nature  as  a  vast  common,  but  for 


76  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

this  difference — that,  instead  of  regarding  nature 
as  free  to  all,  it  rather  regards  it  as  free  to  itself 
alone.  When  others  intermeddle  with  any  one  thing, 
in  a  way  that  suits  not  its  fancy  or  pleasure,  it 
resents  and  storms  and  exclaims  like  one  bereft  of 
its  rights — so  that,  instead  of  regarding  the  universe 
as  a  common,  it  were  more  accurate  to  say,  that 
it  regarded  the  whole  as  its  own  property,  or 
itself  as  the  universal  proprietor  of  all  on  which  it 
may  have  cast  a  pleased  or  a  wishful  eye.  What- 
ever it  grasps,  it  feels  to  be  as  much  its  own  as  it 
does  the  fingers  which  grasp  it.  And  not  only  do 
its  claims  extend  to  all  within  its  reach,  but  to  all 
within  the  field  of  its  vision — insomuch,  that  it  will 
even  stretch  forth  its  hands  to  the  moon  in  the 
firmament ;  and  wreak  its  displeasure  on  the  nurse, 
for  not  bringing  the  splendid  bauble  within  its 
grasp.  Instead  then  of  saying,  that,  at  this  parti- 
cular stage,  it  knows  not  how  to  appropriate  any 
thing,  it  were  more  accurate  to  say  that,  a  universal 
tyrant  and  monopolist,  it  would  claim  and  appro- 
priate all  things — exacting  from  the  whole  of 
nature  a  subserviency  to  its  caprices ;  and,  the 
little  despot  of  its  establishment,  giving  forth  its 
intimations  and  its  mandates,  with  the  expectation, 
and  often  with  the  real  power  and  authority  of 
instant  obedience.  We  before  said  that  its  anger 
was  coextensive  with  the  capacity  of  sensation ; 
and  we  now  say  that,  whatever  its  rectified  notion 
of  property  may  be,  it  has  the  original  notion  of 
an  unlimited  range  over  which  itself  at  least  may 
expatiate,  without  let  or  contradiction — the  self- 
constituted  proprietor  of  a  domain,   wide  as   its 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  77 

desires,  and  on  which  none  may  interfere  against 
its  will,  without  awakening  in  its  bosom,  somewhat 
like  the  sense  and  feeling  of  an  injurious  molesta- 
tion.* 

10.  And  it  is  instructive  to  observe  the  process, 
by  which  this  original  notion  of  property  is  at 
length  rectified  into  the  subsequent  notion,  which 
obtains  in  general  society.  For  this  purpose  we 
must  inquire  what  the  circumstances  are  which 
limit  and  determine  that  sense  of  property,  which 
was  quite  general  and  unrestricted  before,  to 
certain  special  things,  of  which  the  child  learns  to 
feel  that  they  are  peculiarly  its  own — and  that  too, 
in  a  manner  which  distinguishes  them  from  all 
other  things,  which  are  not  so  felt  to  be  its  own. 
The  child  was  blind  to  any  such  distinction  before 
— its  first  habit  being  to  arrogate  and  monopolize 
all  things ;  and  the  question  is,  what  those  circum- 
stances are,  which  serve  to  signalize  some  things, 
to  which,  its  feelings  of  property,  now  withdrawn 
from  wide  and  boundless  generality,  are  exclusively 
and  specifically  directed.    It  will  make  conclusively 


*  From  what  has  been  already  said  of  resentment,  it  would 
appear,  that  the  instinctive  feeling  of  property,  and  instinctive 
anger  are  in  a  state  of  co-relation  with  each  other.  It  is  by 
offence  being  rendered  to  the  former,  that  the  latter  is  called 
forth.  Anterior  to  a  sense  of  justice,  our  disposition  is  to 
arrogate  every  thing — and  it  is  then  that  we  are  vulnerable  to 
anger  from  all  points  of  the  compass.  Let  another  meddle,  to 
our  annoyance,  with  any  thing  whatever,  at  this  early  stage,  and 
we  shall  feel  the  very  emotion  of  anger,  which  in  a  higher  stage 
of  moral  and  mental  cultivation,  is  only  called  forth  by  his 
meddling  with  that  which  really  and  rightfully  belongs  to  us. 
The  sense  of  justice,  instead  of  originating  either  the  emotion  of 
anger,  or  a  sense  of  property,  has  the  effect  to  limit  and  restrain 
both. 


78         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

for  our  argument,  if  it  shall  appear,  that  this  sense 
of  property,  even  in  its  posterior  and  rectified  form, 
is  the  work  of  nature,  operating  on  the  hearts  of 
children ;  and  not  the  work  of  man,  devising,  in 
the  maturity  of  his  political  wisdom,  such  a 
regulated  system  of  things,  as  might  be  best  for 
the  order  and  well-being  of  society. 

1 1 .  This  matter  then  might  be  illustrated  by 
the  contests  of  very  young  children,  and  by 
the  manner  in  which  these  are  adjusted  to  the 
acquiescence  and  satisfaction  of  them  all.  We 
might  gather  a  lesson  even  from  the  quarrel  which 
sometimes  arises  among  them,  about  a  matter  so 
small  as  their  right  to  the  particular  chairs  of  a 
room.  If  one  for  example,  have  just  sat  on  a  chair, 
though  only  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  left  it  for 
a  moment — it  will  feel  itself  injured,  if,  on  returning, 
it  shall  find  the  chair  in  the  possession  of  another 
occupier.  The  brief  occupation  which  it  has 
already  had,  gives  it  the  feeling  of  a  right  to  the 
continued  occupation  of  it — insomuch,  that,  when 
kept  out  by  an  intruder,  it  has  the  sense  of  having 
been  wrongously  dispossessed.  The  particular 
chair  of  which  it  was  for  some  time  the  occupier, 
is  the  object  of  a  special  possessory  affection  or 
feeling,  which  it  attaches  to  no  other  chair ;  and 
by  which  it  stands  invested  in  its  own  imagination, 
as  being,  for  the  time,  the  only  rightful  occupier. 
This  then  may  be  regarded  as  a  very  early  indica- 
tion of  that  possessory  feeling,  which  is  afterwards 
of  such  extensive  influence  in  the  economy  of  social 
life — a  feeling  so  strong,  as  often  of  itself  to  con- 
stitute a  plea,  not  only  sufficient  in  the  apprehension 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  79 

of  the  claimant,  but  sufficient  in  the  general  sense 
of  the  community,  for  substantiating  the  right  of 
many  a  proprietor. 

12.  But  there  is  still  another  primitive  ingredient 
which  enters  into  this  feeling  of  property ;  and  we 
call  it  primitive,  because  anterior  to  the  sanctions 
or  the  application  of  law.  Let  the  child  in  addition 
to  the  plea  that  it  had  been  the  recent  occupier  of 
the  ehair  in  question,  be  able  further  to  advance 
in  argument  for  its  right — that,  with  its  own  hands, 
it  had  just  placed  it  beside  the  fire,  and  thereby 
given  additional  value  to  the  occupation  of  it. 
This  reason  is  both  felt  by  the  child  itself,  and  will 
be  admitted  by  other  children  even  of  a  very  tender 
age,  as  a  strengthener  of  its  claim.  It  exemplifies 
the  second  great  principle  on  which  the  natural 
right  of  property  rests — even  that  every  man  is 
proprietor  of  the  fruit  of  his  own  labour;  and 
that  to  whatever  extent  he  may  have  impressed 
additional  value  on  any  given  thing  by  the  work  of 
his  own  hands,  to  that  extent,  at  least,  he  should 
be  held  the  owner  of  it. 

13.  This  then  seems  the  way,  in  which  the  sense 
of  his  right  to  any  given  thing  arises  in  the  heart 
of  the  claimant ;  but  something  more  must  be  said 
to  account  for  the  manner  in  which  this  right  is 
deferred  to  by  his  companions.  It  accounts  for 
the  manner,  in  which  the  possessory  feeling  arises 
in  the  hearts  of  one  and  all  of  them,  when  similarly 
circumstanced;  but  it  does  not  account  for  the 
manner  in  which  this  possessory  feeling,  in  the 
heart  of  each,  is  respected  by  all  his  fellows — so 
that  he  is  suffered  to  remain,  in  the  secure  and 


80  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

unmolested  possession  of  that  which  he  rightfully 
claims.  The  circumstances  which  originate  the 
sense  of  property,  serve  to  explain  this  one  fact, 
the  existence  of  a  possessory  feeling,  in  the  heart 
of  every  individual  who  is  actuated  thereby.  But 
the  deference  rendered  to  this  feeling  by  any  other 
individuals,  is  another  and  a  distinct  fact ;  and  we 
must  refer  to  a  distinct  principle  from  that  of  the 
mere  sense  of  property,  for  the  explanation  of  it. 
This  new  or  distinct  principle  is  a  sense  of  equity 
— or  that  which  prompts  to  likeness  or  equality,, 
between  the  treatment  which  I  should  claim  of 
others  and  my  treatment  of  them ;  and  in  virtue  of 
which,  I  should  hold  it  unrighteous  and  unfair,  if 
I  disregarded  or  inflicted  violence  on  the  claim  of 
another,  which,  in  the  same  circumstances  with 
him,  I  am  conscious  that  I  should  have  felt,  and 
would  have  advanced  for  myself.  Had  I  been  the 
occupier  of  that  chair,  in  like  manner  with  the  little 
claimant  who  is  now  insisting  on  the  possession  of 
it,  I  should  have  felt  and  claimed  precisely  as  he 
is  doing.  Still  more,  had  I  like  him  placed  it 
beside  the  fire,  I  should  have  felt  what  he  is  now 
expressing — a  still  more  distinct  and  decided  right 
to  it.  If  conscious  of  an  identity  of  feeling  between 
me  and  another  in  the  same  circumstances — then 
let  my  moral  nature  be  so  far  evolved  as  to  feel  the 
force  of  this  consideration ;  and,  under  the  operation 
of  a  sense  of  equity,  I  shall  defer  to  the  very  claim, 
which  I  should  myself  have  urged,  had  I  been 
similarly  placed.  And  it  is  marvellous,  how  soon 
the  hearts  of  children  discover  a  sensibility  to  this 
consideration,  and  how  soon  they  are  capable  of 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  81 

becoming  obedient  to  the  power  of  it.  It  is,  in 
fact,  the  principle  on  which  a  thousand  contests  of 
the  nursery  are  settled,  and  many  thousand  more 
are  prevented;  what  else  would  be  an  incessant 
scramble  of  rival  and  ravenous  cupidity,  being 
mitigated  and  reduced  to  a  very  great,  though 
unknown  and  undefinable  extent,  by  the  sense  of 
justice  coming  into  play.  It  is  altogether  worthy 
of  remark,  however,  that  the  sense  of  property  is 
anterior  to  the  sense  of  justice,  and  comes  from  an 
anterior  and  distinct  source  in  our  nature.  It  is 
not  justice  which  originates  the  proprietary  feeling 
in  the  heart  of  any  individual.  It  only  arbitrates 
between  the  proprietary  claims  and  feelings  of  dif- 
ferent individuals — after  these  had  previously  arisen 
by  the  operation  of  other  principles  in  the  human 
constitution.  Those  writers  on  jurisprudence  are 
sadly  and  inextricably  puzzled,  who  imagine  that 
justice  presided  over  the  first  ordinations  of  property 
— utterly  at  a  loss  as  they  must  be,  to  find  out  the 
principle  that  could  guide  her  initial  movements. 
Justice  did  not  create  property;  but  found  it 
already  created — her  only  office  being  to  decide 
between  the  antecedent  claims  of  one  man  and 
another  :  And,  in  the  discharge  of  this  office,  she 
but  compares  the  rights  which  each  of  them  can 
allege,  as  founded  either  on  the  length  of  undis- 
puted and  undisposed  of  possession,  or  on  the  value 
they  had  impressed  on  the  thing  at  issue  by  labour 
of  their  own.  In  other  words,  she  bears  respect 
to  those  two  great  primitive  ingredients  by  which 
property  is  constituted,  before  that  she  had  ever 
bestowed  any  attention,  or  given  any  award  what- 
d2 


82  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

ever  regarding  it.  The  matter  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  peculiar  relation  in  which  each  man  stands 
to  his  own  body,  as  being,  in  a  certain  view,  the 
same  with  the  peculiar  relation  in  which  each  man 
stands  to  his  own  property.  His  sensitive  feelings 
are  hurt,  by  the  infliction  of  a  neighbour's 
violence  upon  the  one  ;  and  his  proprietary  feelings 
are  hurt,  by  the  encroachment  of  a  neighbour's 
violence  upon  the  other.  But  justice  no  more 
originated  the  proprietary,  than  it  did  the  sensitive 
feelings — no  more  gave  me  the  peculiar  affection 
which  I  feel  for  the  property  1  now  occupy  as  my 
own,  than  it  gave  me  my  peculiar  affection  for  the 
person  which  I  now  occupy  as  my  own.  Justice 
pronounces  on  the  iniquity  of  any  hurtful  inflic- 
tion by  us  on  the  person  of  another — seeing  that 
such  an  infliction  upon  our  own  person,  to  which 
we  stand  similarly  related,  would  be  resented  by 
ourselves.  And  Justice,  in  like  manner,  pro- 
nounces on  the  inequality  or  iniquity  of  any  hurtful 
encroachment  by  us  on  the  property  of  another — 
also  seeing,  that  such  an  encroachment  upon  our 
own  property,  to  which  we  stand  similarly  related, 
would  be  felt  and  resented  by  ourselves.  Man 
feels  one  kind  of  pain,  when  the  hand  which  belongs 
to  him  is  struck  by  another ;  and  he  feels  another 
kind  of  pain,  when  some  article  which  it  holds,  and 
which  he  conceives  to  belong  to  him,  is  wrested  by 
another  from  its  grasp.  But  it  was  not  Justice 
which  instituted  either  the  animal  economy  in  the 
one  case,  or  the  proprietary  economy  in  the  other. 
Justice  found  them  both  already  instituted.  Pro- 
perty is  not  the  creation  of  justice ;  but  is  in  truth 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  83 

a  prior  creation.  Justice  did  not  form  this  material, 
or  command  it  into  being;  but  in  the  course  of 
misunderstanding  or  controversy  between  man  and 
man,  property,  a  material  pre-existent  or  already 
made,  forms  the  subject  of  many  of  those  questions 
which  are  put  into  her  hands. 

14.  But,  recurring  to  the  juvenile  controversy 
which  we  have  already  imagined  for  the  purpose 
of  illustration,  there  is  still  a  third  way  in  which 
wre  may  conceive  it  to  be  conclusively  and  defini- 
tively settled.  The  parents  may  interpose  their 
authority,  and  assign  his  own  particular  chair  to 
each  member  of  the  household.  The  instant  effect 
of  such  a  decree,  in  fixing  and  distinguishing  the 
respective  properties  in  all  time  coming,  has  led, 
we  believe,  to  a  misconception  regarding  the  real 
origin  of  property — in  consequence  of  a  certain 
obscure  analogy  between  this  act  of  parents  or 
legislators  over  the  family  of  a  household,  and  a 
supposed  act  of  rulers  or  legislators  over  the  great 
family  of  a  nation.  Now,  not  only  have  the 
parents  this  advantage  over  the  magistrates — that 
the  property  which  they  thus  distribute  is  previ- 
ously their  own;  but  there  is  both  a  power  of 
enforcement  and  a  disposition  to  acquiescence 
within  the  limits  of  a  home,  which  exist  in  an  im- 
measurably weaker  degree  within  the  limits  of  a 
kingdom.  Still,  with  all  this  superiority  on  the 
part  of  the  household  legislators,  it  would  even  be 
their  wisdom,  to  conform  their  decree  as  much  as 
possible  to  those  natural  principles  and  feelings  of 
property,  which  had   been  in  previous  exercise 


84         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE   TO  THE 

among  their  children — to  have  respect,  in  fact, 
when  making  distribution  of  the  chairs,  both  to 
their  habits  of  previous  occupation,  and  to  the 
additional  value  which  any  of  them  may  have 
impressed  upon  their  favourite  seats,  by  such  little 
arts  of  upholstery  or  mechanics,  as  they  are  com- 
petent to  practise.  A  wise  domestic  legislator 
would  not  thwart,  but  rather  defer  to  the  claims 
and  expectations  which  nature  had  previously 
founded.  And  still  more  a  national  legislator  or 
statesman,  would  evince  his  best  wisdom,  by, 
instead  of  traversing  the  constitution  of  property 
which  nature  had  previously  established,  greatly 
deferring  to  that  sense  of  a  possessory  right,  which 
long  and  unquestioned  occupation  so  universally 
gives ;  and  greatly  deferring  to  the  principle,  that, 
whatever  the  fruit  of  each  man's  labour  may  be,  it 
rightfully,  and  therefore  should  legally  belong  to 
him.  A  government  could,  and  at  the  termination 
of  a  revolutionary  storm,  often  does,  traverse  these 
principles ;  but  not  without  the  excitement  of  a 
thousand  heart-burnings,  and  so  the  establishment 
of  a  strong  counteraction  to  its  own  authority  in 
the  heart  of  its  dominions.  It  is  the  dictate  of 
sound  policy — that  the  natural,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  legal  or  political  on  the  other,  should 
quadrate  as  much  as  possible.  And  thus,  instead 
of  saying  with  Dr.  Paley  that  property  derived  its 
constitution  and  being  from  the  law  of  the  land — 
we  should  say  that  law  never  exhibits  a  better 
understanding  of  her  own  place  and  functions, 
than  when,  founding  on  materials  already  provided, 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  85 

she  feels  that  her  wisest  part  is  but  to  act  as  an 
auxiliary,  and  to  ratify  that  prior  constitution 
which  nature  had  put  into  her  hands. 

15.  In  this  exposition  which  we  have  now 
attempted  of  the  origin  and  rights  of  property,  we 
are  not  insensible  to  the  mighty  use  of  law.  By 
its  power  of  enforcement,  it  perpetuates  or  defends 
from  violation  that  existent  order  of  things  which 
itself  had  established,  or,  rather,  which  itself  had 
ratified.  Even  though  at  its  first  ordinations  it 
had  contravened  those  natural  principles  which 
enter  into  the  foundation  of  property,  these  very 
principles  will,  in  time,  re-appear  in  favour  of  the 
new  system,  and  yield  to  it  a  firmer  and  a  stronger 
support  with  every  day  of  its  continuance.  What- 
ever fraud  or  force  may  have  been  concerned  at 
the  historical  commencement  of  the  present  and 
actual  distribution  of  property — the  then  new 
possessors  have  at  length  become  old ;  and,  under 
the  canopy  and  protection  of  law,  the  natural 
rights  have  been  superadded  to  the  factitious  or  the 
political.  Law  has  guaranteed  to  each  proprietor 
a  long  continued  occupation,  till  a  strong  and 
inveterate  possessory  feeling  has  taken  root  and 
arisen  in  every  heart.  And  secure  of  this  occupa- 
tion, each  may,  in  the  course  of  years,  have  mixed 
up  to  an  indefinite  amount,  the  improvements  of 
his  own  skill  and  labour  with  those  estates — which, 
as  the  fruit  whether  of  anarchy  or  of  victorious 
invasion,  had  fallen  into  his  hands.  So  that  these 
first  and  second  principles  of  natural  jurisprudence, 
whatever  violence  may  have  been  done  to  them 
at  the  overthrow  of  a  former  regime,  are  again 


86  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

fostered  into  all  their  original  efficacy  and  strength 
during  the  continuance  of  a  present  one.  Inso- 
much, that  if,  at  the  end  of  half  a  century,  those 
outcasts  of  a  great  revolutionary  hurricane,  the 
descendants  of  a  confiscated  noblesse,  were  to 
rally  and  combine  for  the  recovery  of  their  ancient 
domains — they  would  be  met  in  the  encounter, 
not  by  the  force  of  the  existing  government  only, 
but  by  the  outraged  and  resentful  feelings  of  the 
existing  proprietors,  whose  possessory  and  pre- 
scriptive rights,  now  nurtured  into  full  and  firm 
establishment,  would,  in  addition  to  the  sense  of 
interest,  enlist  even  the  sense  of  justice  upon  their 
side.  Apart  from  the  physical,  did  we  but  compute 
the  moral  forces  which  enter  into  such  a  conflict, 
it  will  often  be  found  that  the  superiority  is  in 
favour  of  the  actual  occupiers.  Those  feelings, 
on  the  one  hand,  which  are  associated  with  the 
recollection  of  a  now  departed  ancestry  and  their 
violated  rights,  are  found  to  be  inoperative  and 
feeble,  when  brought  into  comparison  or  collision 
with  that  strength  which  nature  has  annexed  to 
the  feelings  of  actual  possession.  Regarded  as 
but  a  contest  of  sentiment  alone,  the  disposition  to 
recover  is  not  so  strong  as  the  disposition  to  retain. 
The  recollection  that  these  were  once  my  parental 
acres,  though  wrested  from  the  hand  of  remote 
ancestors  by  anarchists  and  marauders,  would  not 
enlist  so  great  or  so  practical  a  moral  force  on  the 
aggressive  side  of  a  new  warfare,  as  the  reflection 
that  these  are  now  my  possessed  acres,  which, 
though  left  but  by  immediate  ancestors,  I  have 
been   accustomed  from  infancy  to  call  my  own, 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  87 

would  enlist  on  the  side  of  the  defensive.  In  the 
course  of  generations,  those  sedative  influences, 
which  tend  to  the  preservation  of  the  existing  order 
wax  stronger  and  stronger;  and  those  disturbing 
influences,  which  tend  to  the  restoration  of  the 
ancient  order,  wax  weaker  and  weaker — till  man 
at  last  ceases  to  charge  himself  with  a  task  so 
infinitely  above  his  strength,  as  the  adjustment  of 
the  quarrels  and  the  accumulated  wrongs  of  the 
centuries  which  have  gone  by.  In  other  words, 
the  constitution  of  law  in  regard  to  property,  which 
is  the  work  of  man,  may  be  so  framed  as  to 
sanction,  and,  therefore,  to  encourage  the  enormities 
which  have  been  perpetrated  by  the  force  of  arms 
— while  the  constitution  of  the  mind  in  regard  to 
property,  which  is  the  work  of  nature,  is  so  framed, 
as,  with  conservative  virtue,  to  be  altogether  on 
the  side  of  perpetuity  and  peace. 

16.  Had  a  legislator  of  supreme  wisdom  and 
armed  with  despotic  power  been  free  to  establish 
the  best  scheme  for  augmenting  the  wealth  and 
the  comforts  of  human  society — he  could  have 
devised  nothing  more  effectual  than  that  existing 
constitution  of  property,  which  obtains  so  generally 
throughout  the  world ;  and  by  which,  each  man, 
secure  within  the  limits  of  his  own  special  and 
recognised  possession,  might  claim  as  being  rightly 
and  originally  his,  the  fruit  of  all  the  labour  which 
he  may  choose  to  expend  upon  it.  But  this  was 
riot  left  to  the  discovery  of  man,  or  to  any  ordinations 
of  his  consequent  upon  that  discovery.  He  was 
not  led  to  this  arrangement  by  the  experience  of 
its  consequences ;  but  prompted  to  it  by  certain 


88  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

feelings,  as  much  prior  to  that  experience,  as  the 
appetite  of  hunger  is  prior  to  our  experience  of  the 
use  of  food.  In  this  matter,  too,  the  wisdom  of 
nature  has  anticipated  the  wisdom  of  man,  by 
providing  him  with  original  principles  of  her  own. 
Man  was  not  left  to  find  out  the  direction  in  which 
his  benevolence  might  be  most  productive  of  enjoy- 
ment to  others ;  but  he  has  been  irresistibly,  and, 
as  far  as  he  is  concerned,  blindly  impelled  thereto 
by  means  of  a  family  affection — which,  concentrating 
his  efforts  on  a  certain  few,  has  made  them  a  hun- 
dred times  more  prolific  of  benefit  to  mankind  than 
if  all  had  been  left  to  provide  the  best  they  may 
for  the  whole,  without  a  precise  or  determinate 
impulse  to  any.  And  in  like  manner,  man  was 
not  left  to  find  out  the  direction  in  which  his 
industry  might  be  made  most  productive  of  the 
materials  of  enjoyment;  but,  with  the  efforts  of 
each  concentrated  by  means  of  a  special  possessory 
affection  on  a  certain  portion  of  the  territory,  the 
universal  produce  is  incalculably  greater  than 
under  a  medley  system  of  indifference,  with  every 
field  alike  open  to  all,  and,  therefore,  alike  unre- 
claimed from  the  wilderness — unless  one  man  shall 
consent  to  labour  in  seed  time,  although  another 
should  reap  the  fruit  of  his  labour  in  harvest.  It 
is  good  that  man  was  not  trusted  with  the  whole 
disentanglement  of  this  chaos — but  that  a  natural 
jurisprudence,  founded  on  the  constitution  of  the 
human  mind,  so  far  advances  and  facilitates  the 
task  of  that  artificial  jurisprudence,  which  frames 
the  various  codes  or  constitutions  of  human  law. 
It  is  well  that  nature  has  connected  with  the  past 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY, 

and  actual  possession  of  any  thing,  so  strong  a 
sense  of  right  to  its  continued  possession  ;  and  that 
she  has  so  powerfully  backed  this  principle,  by 
means  of  another  as  strongly  and  universally  felt 
as  the  former,  even  that  each  man  has  a  right  to 
possess  the  fruit  of  his  own  industry.  The  human 
legislator  has  little  more  to  do  than  to  confirm, 
or  rather  to  promulgate  and  make  known  his 
determination  to  abide  by  principles  already  felt 
and  recognised  by  all  men.  Wanting  these,  he 
could  have  fixed  nothing,  he  could  have  perpetuated 
nothing.  The  legal  constitution  of  every  state, 
in  its  last  and  finished  form,  comes  from  the  hand 
of  man.  But  the  great  and  natural  principles, 
which  secure  for  these  constitutions  the  acceptance 
of  whole  communities — implanted  in  man  from  his 
birth,  or  at  least  evincing  their  presence  and 
power  in  very  early  childhood — these  are  what 
bespeak  the  immediate  hand  of  God. 

17.  But  these  principles,  strongly  conservative 
though  they  be,  on  the  side  of  existing  property 
do  not  at  all  times  prevent  a  revolution — which 
is  much  more  frequently,  however,  a  revolution  of 
power  than  of  property.  But  when  such  is  the 
degree  of  violence  abroad  in  society,  that  even  the 
latter  is  effected — this  most  assuredly,  does  not 
arise  from  any  decay  or  intermission  of  the  pos- 
sessory feelings,  that  we  have  just  been  expounding; 
but  from  the  force  and  fermentation  of  other 
causes  which  prevail  in  opposition  to  these,  and  in 
spite  of  them.  And,  after  that  such  revolution 
has  done  its  work  and  ejected  the  old  dynasty  of 
proprietors,  the  mischief  to  them  may  be  as  irre- 


90         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

eoverable,  as  if  their  estates  had  been  wrested  from 
them,  by  an  irruption  from  the  waters  of  the  ocean, 
by  earthquake,  or  the  sweeping  resistless  visitation 
of  any  other  great  physical  calamity.  The  moral 
world  has  its  epochs  and  its  transitions  as  well  as 
the  natural,  during  which  the  ordinary  laws  are 
not  suspended  but  only  for  the  time  overborne ; 
but  this  does  not  hinder  the  recurrence  and  full 
reinstatement  of  these  laws  during  the  long  eras 
of  intermediate  repose.  And  it  is  marvellous, 
with  what  certainty  and  speed,  the  conservative 
influences,  of  which  we  have  treated,  gather  around 
a  new  system  of  things,  with  whatever  violence, 
and  even  injustice,  it  may  have  been  ushered  into 
the  world — insomuch  that,  under  the  guardianship 
of  the  powers  which  be,  those  links  of  a  natural 
jurisprudence,  now  irretrievably  torn  from  the 
former,  are  at  length  transferred  in  all  their  wonted 
tenacity  to  the  existing  proprietors ;  rivetting  each 
of  them  to  his  own  several  property,  and  altogether 
establishing  a  present  order  of  as  great  firmness 
and  strength  as  ever  belonged  to  the  order  which 
went  before  it,  but  which  is  now  superseded  and 
forgotten.  It  is  well  that  nature  hath  annexed  so 
potent  a  charm  to  actual  possession ;  and  a  charm 
which  strengthens  with  every  year  and  day  of  its 
continuance.  This  may  not  efface  the  historical 
infamy  of  many  ancient  usurpations.  But  the 
world  cannot  be  kept  in  a  state  of  perpetual  effer- 
vescence ;  and  now  that  the  many  thousand  wrongs 
of  years  gone  by,  as  well  as  the  dead  on  whom 
they  have  been  inflicted,  are  fading  into  deep 
oblivion — it  is  well  for  the  repose  of  its  living 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  91 

generations,  that,  in  virtue  of  the  strong  possessory 
feelings  which  nature  causes  to  arise  in  the  hearts 
of  existing  proprietors  and  to  be  sympathized  with 
by  all  other  men,  the  possessors  de  facto  have  at 
length  the  homage  done  to  them  of  possessors 
dejure;  strong  in  their  own  consciousness  of  right, 
and  strong  in  the  recognition  thereof  by  all  their 
contemporaries. 

18.  But  ere  we  have  completed  our  views  upon 
this  subject,  we  must  shortly  dwell  on  a  principle 
of  very  extensive  application  in  morals  ;  and  which 
itself  forms  a  striking  example  of  a  most  beauteous 
and  beneficent  adaptation  in  the  constitution  of 
the  human  mind  to  the  needs  and  the  well-being 
of  human  society.  It  may  be  thus  announced, 
briefly  and  generally  : — however  strong  the  special 
affections  of  our  nature  may  be,  yet,  if  along  with 
them  there  be  but  a  principle  of  equity  in  the 
mind,  then,  these  affections,  so  far  from  concentrat- 
ing our  selfish  regards  upon  their  several  objects  to 
the  disregard  and  injury  of  others,  will  but  enhance 
our  respect  and  our  sympathy  for  the  like  affections 
in  other  men. 

19.  This  may  be  illustrated,  in  the  first  instance, 
by  the  equity  observed  between  man  and  man,  in 
respect  to  the  bodies  which  they  wear — endowed, 
as  we  may  suppose  them  to  be,  with  equal,  at 
least  with  like  capacities  of  pain  and  suffering 
from  external  violence.  To  inflict  that  very  pain 
upon  another  which  I  should  resent  or  shrink  from 
in  agony,  if  inflicted  upon  myself — this  to  all  sense 
of  justice  appears  a  very  palpable  iniquity.  Let 
us  now  conceive  then,  that  the  sentient  framework 


92  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

of  each  of  the  parties  was  made  twice  more  sen- 
sitive, or  twice  more  alive  to  pain  and  pungency 
of  feeling  than  it  actually  is.  In  one  view  it  may 
be  said  that  each  would  become  twice  more  selfish 
than  before.  Each  would  feel  a  double  interest  in 
warding  off  external  violence  from  himself ;  and  so 
be  doubly  more  anxious  for  his  own  protection  and 
safety.  But,  with  the  very  same  moral  nature  as 
ever,  each,  now  aware  of  the  increased  sensibility, 
not  merely  in  himself  but  in  his  fellows,  would  feel 
doubly  restrained  from  putting  forth  upon  him  a 
hand  of  violence.  So,  grant  him  to  have  but  a 
sense  of  equity — and,  exactly  in  proportion  as  he 
became  tender  of  himself,  would  he  become  tender 
of  another  also.  If  the  now  superior  exquisiteness 
of  his  own  frame  afforded  him  a  topic,  on  which, 
what  may  be  called  his  selfishness  would  feel  more 
intensely  than  before — the  now  superior  exquisite- 
ness of  another's  frame  would,  in  like  manner, 
afford  a  topic,  on  which  his  sense  of  justice  would 
feel  more  intensely  than  before.  It  is  even  as 
when  men  of  very  acute  sensibilities  company 
together — each  has,  on  that  very  account,  a  more 
delicate  and  refined  consideration  for  the  feelings 
of  all  the  rest;  and  it  is  only  among  men  of  tougher 
pellicle  and  rigid  fibre,  where  coarseness  and 
freedom  prevail,  because  there  coarseness  and 
freedom  are  not  felt  to  be  offensive.  Grant  but 
a  sense  of  equity — and  the  very  fineness  of  my 
sensations  which  weds  me  so  much  more  to  the 
care  and  the  defence  of  my  own  person,  would  also, 
on  the  imagination  of  a  similar  fineness  in  a  fellow- 
man,  restrain  me  so  much  more  from  the  putting 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OP  SOCIETY.  93 

forth  of  any  violence  upon  his  person.  If  I  had 
any  compassion  at  all,  or  any  horror  at  the  injustice 
of  inflicting  upon  another,  that  which  I  should  feel 
to  be  a  cruelty,  if  inflicted  upon  myself — I  would 
experience  a  greater  recoil  of  sympathy  from  the 
blow  that  was  directed  to  the  surface  of  a  recent 
wound  upon  another,  precisely  as  I  would  feel  a 
severer  agony  in  a  similar  infliction  upon  myself. 
So,  there  is  nothing  in  the  quickness  of  my  physical 
sensibilities,  and  by  which  I  am  rendered  more 
alive  to  the  care  and  the  guardianship  of  my  own 
person — there  is  nothing  in  this  to  blunt,  far  less 
to  extinguish  my  sensibilities  for  other  men.  Nay, 
it  may  give  a  quicker  moral  delicacy  to  all  the 
sympathies  which  I  before  felt  for  them.  And 
especially,  the  more  sensitive  I  am  to  the  hurts 
and  the  annoyances  which  others  bring  upon  my 
own  person,  the  more  scrupulous  may  I  be  of  being 
in  anyway  instrumental  to  the  hurt  or  the  annoyance 
of  others. 

20.  The  same  holds  true  between  man  and  man, 
not  merely  of  the  bodies  which  they  wear,  but  of 
the  families  which  belong  to  them.  Each  man,  by 
nature,  hath  a  strong  affection  for  his  own  offspring 
— the  young  whom  he  hath  reared,  and  with  whom 
the  daily  habit  of  converse  under  the  same  roof, 
hath  strengthened  all  the  original  affinities  that 
subsisted  between  them.  But  one  man  a  parent 
knows  that  another  man,  also  a  parent,  is  actuated 
by  the  very  same  appropriate  sensibilities  towards 
his  offspring ;  and  nought  remains  but  to  graft  on 
these  separate  and  special  affections  in  each,  a 
sympathy  between  one   neighbour  and   another; 


94         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

that  there  might  be  a  mutual  respect  for  each 
other's  family  affections.  After  the  matter  is 
advanced  thus  far,  we  can  be  at  no  loss  to  perceive, 
that,  in  proportion  to  the  strength  of  the  parental 
affection  with  each,  will  be  the  strength  of  the 
fellow-feeling  that  each  has  with  the  affection  of 
the  other — insomuch  that  he  who  bears  in  his  heart 
the  greatest  tenderness  for  his  own  offspring,  would 
feel  the  greatest  revolt  against  an  act  of  severity 
towards  the  offspring  of  his  friend.  Now  it  is 
altogether  so  with  the  separate  and  original  sense 
of  property  in  each  of  two  neighbours,  and  a  sense 
of  justice  grafted  thereupon — even  as  a  mutual 
neighbourlike  sympathy  may  be  grafted  on  the 
separate  family  affections.  One  man  a  proprietor, 
linked  by  many  ties  with  that  which  he  hath  pos- 
sessed and  been  in  the  habitual  use  and  manage- 
ment of  for  years,  is  perfectly  conscious  of  the  very 
same  kind  of  affinity,  between  another  man  a  pro- 
prietor and  that  which  belongs  to  him.  It  is  not 
the  justice  which  so  links  him  to  his  own  property, 
any  more  than  it  is  the  sympathy  with  his  neigh- 
bour which  has  linked  him  to  his  own  children. 
But  the  justice  hath  given  him  a  respectful  feeling 
for  his  neighbour's  rights,  even  as  the  sympathy 
would  give  him  a  tenderness  for  his  neighbour's 
offspring.  And  so  far  from  there  being  aught  in 
the  strength  of  the  appropriating  principle  that 
relaxes  this  deference  to  the  rights  of  his  neigh- 
bour, the  second  principle  may  in  fact  grow  with 
the  growth,  and  strengthen  with  the  strength  of 
the  first  one. 

21.  For  the  purpose  of  maintaining  an  equitable 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  95 

regard,  or  an  equitable  conduct  to  others — it  is  no 
more  necessary  that  we  should  reduce  or  extirpate 
the  special  affections  of  our  nature,  than  that,  in 
order  to  make  room  for  the  love  of  another,  we 
should  discharge  from  the  bosom  all  love  of  our- 
selves. So  far  from  this,  the  affection  we  have 
for  ourselves,  or  for  those  various  objects  which 
by  the  constitution  of  our  nature  we  are  formed  to 
seek  after  and  to  delight  in — is  the  measure  of  that 
duteous  regard  which  we  owe  to  others,  and  of 
that  duteous  respect  which  we  owe  to  all  their 
rights  and  all  their  interests.  The  very  highest 
behest  of  social  morality,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  most  comprehensive  of  its  rules,  is  that  we 
should  love  our  neighbour  as  we  do  ourselves. 
Love  to  our  neighbour  is  the  thing  which  this  rule 
measures  off — and  love  to  ourselves  is  the  thing 
which  it  measures  by.  These  two  then,  the  social 
and  the  selfish  affections,  instead  of  being  as  they 
too  often  are  inversely,  might  under  a  virtuous 
regimen  be  directly  proportional  to  each  other. 
At  all  events  the  way  to  advance  or  magnify  the 
one,  is  not  surely  to  weaken  or  abridge  the  other. 
The  strength  of  certain  prior  affections  .which  by 
nature  we  do  have,  is  the  standard  of  certain 
posterior  affections  which  morality  tells  that  we 
ought  to  have.  Morality  neither  planted  these 
prior  affections,  nor  does  she  enjoin  us  to  extir- 
pate them.  They  were  inserted  by  the  hand  of 
nature  for  the  most  useful  purposes ;  and  morality, 
instead  of  demolishing  her  work,  applies  the  rule 
and  compass  to  it  for  the  construction  of  her  own. 
22.  It  was  not  justice  which  presided  over  the 


96         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

original  distribution  of  property.  It  was  not  she 
who  assigned  to  each  man  his  separate  field,  any 
more  than  it  was  she  who  assigned  to  each  man 
his  separate  family.  It  was  nature  that  did  both, 
by  investing  with  such  power  those  anterior  cir- 
cumstances of  habit  and  possession,  which  gave 

rise first,  to  the  special  love  that  each  man  bears 

to  his  own  children,  and  secondly,  to  the  special 
love  that  each  man  bears  to  his  own  acres.  Had 
there  been  no  such  processes  beforehand,  for  thus 
isolating  the  parental  regards  of  each  on  that  certain 
household  group  which  nature  placed  under  his 
roof,  and  the  proprietary  regards  of  each  on  that 
certain  local  territory  which  history  casts  into  his 
possession:  or,  had  each  man  been  so  constituted, 
that,  instead  of  certain  children  whom  he  felt  to  be 
his  own,  he  was  alike  loose  to  them  or  susceptible  of 
a  like  random  and  indiscriminate  affection  for  any 
children ;  or,  instead  of  certain  lands  which  he  felt  to 
be  his  own,  he  was  alike  loose  to  them  or  susceptible 
of  a  like  tenacious  adherence  to  any  lands — had  such 
been  the  rudimental  chaos  which  nature  put  into 
the  hands  of  man  for  the  exercise  of  his  matured 
faculties,-  neither  his  morality  nor  his  wisdom  would 
have  enabled  him  to  unravel  it.  But  nature 
prepared  for  man  an  easier  task ;  and  when  justice 
arose  to  her  work,  she  found  a  territory  so  far 
already  partitioned,  and  each  proprietor  linked  by 
a  strong  and  separate  tie  of  peculiar  force  to  that 
part  which  he  himself  did  occupy.  She  found  this 
to  be  the  land  which  one  man  wont  to  possess  and 
cultivate,  and  that  to  be  the  land  which  another 
man  wont  to  possess  and  cultivate — the  destination, 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  97 

not  originally,  of  justice,  but  of  accident,  which  her 
office  nevertheless  is  not  to  reverse,  but  to  confirm. 
We  hold  it  a  beautiful  part  of  our  constitution, 
that,  the  firmer  the  tenacity  wherewith  the  first 
man  adheres  to  his  own,  once  that  justice  takes  her 
place  among  the  other  principles  of  his  nature,  the 
prompter  will  be  his  recognition  of  the  second 
man's  right  to  his  own.  If  each  man  sat  more 
loosely  to  his  own  portion,  each  would  have  viewed 
more  loosely  the  right  of  his  neighbour  to  the  other 
portion.  The  sense  of  property,  anterior  to  justice, 
exists  in  the  hearts  of  all;  and  the  principle  of 
justice,  subsequent  to  property,  does  not  extirpate 
these  special  affections,  but  only  arbitrates  between 
them.  In  proportion  to  the  felt  strength  of  the 
proprietary  affection  in  the  hearts  of  each ;  will  be 
the  strength  of  that  deference  which  each,  in  so  far 
as  justice  has  the  mastery  over  him,  renders  to  the 
rights  and  the  property  of  his  neighbour.  These 
are  the  principles  of  the  histoire  raisonnee,  that 
has  been  more  or  less  exemplified  in  all  the 
countries  of  the  world ;  and  which  might  still  be 
exemplified  in  the  appropriation  of  a  desert  island. 
If  we  had  not  had  the  prior  and  special  determi- 
nations of  nature,  justice  would  have  felt  the  work 
of  appropriation  to  be  an  inextricable  problem.  If 
we  had  not  had  justice,  with  each  man  obeying 
only  the  impulse  of  his  own  affections  and  unobser- 
vant of  the  like  affection  of  others,  we  should  have 
been  kept  in  a  state  of  constant  and  interminable 
war.  Under  the  guidance  of  nature  and  justice 
together,  the  whole  earth  might  have  been  parcelled 
out,  without  conflict  and  without  interference. 

VOL.  II.  E 


98         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

23.  If  a  strong  self-interest  in  one's  person  may 
not  only  be  consistent  with,  but,  by  the  aid  of  the 
moral  sense,  may  be  conducive  to  a  proportionally 
strong  principle  of  forbearance  from  all  injury  to 
the  persons  of  other  men — why  may  not  the  very 
same  law  be  at  work  in  regard  to  property  as  to 
person  ?  The  fondness  wherewith  one  nourishes 
and  cherishes  his  own  flesh,  might,  we  have  seen, 
enhance  his  sympathy  and  his  sense  of  justice  for 
that  of  other  men;  and  so,  we  affirm,  might  it  be  of 
the  fondness  wherewith  one  nourishes  and  cherishes 
his  own  field.  The  relation  in  which  each  man 
stands  to  his  own  body,  was  anterior  to  the  first 
dawnings  of  his  moral  nature ;  and  his  instinctive 
sensibilities  of  pain  and  suffering,  when  any  violence 
is  inflicted,  were  also  anterior.  But  as  his  moral 
perceptions  expand,  and  he  considers  others  beside 
himself  who  are  similarly  related  to  their  bodies — 
these  very  susceptibilities  not  only  lead  him  to  recoil 
from  the  violence  that  is  offered  to  himself;  but 
they  lead  him  to  refrain  from  the  offering  of  violence 
to  other  men.  They  may  have  an  air  of  selfishness 
at  the  first;  yet  so  far  from  being  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  justice,  they  are  indispensable  helps  to  it. 
And  so  may  each  man  stand  related  to  a  property 
as  well  as  to  a  person;  and  by  ties  that  bind  him 
to  it,  ere  he  thought  of  his  neighbour's  property 
at  all — by  instinctive  affections,  which  operated 
previously  to  a  sense  of  justice  in  his  bosom;  and 
yet  which,  so  far  from  acting  as  a  thwart  upon  his 
justice  to  others,  give  additional  impulse  to  all  his 
observations  of  it.  He  feels  what  has  passed 
within  his  own  bosom,  in  reference  to  the  field  that 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  99 

he  has  possessed,  and  has  laboured,  and  that  has 
for  a  time  been  respected  by  society  as  his ;  and  he 
is  aware  of  the  very  same  feeling  in  the  breast  of 
a  neighbour  in  relation  to  another  field;  and  in 
very  proportion  to  the  strength  of  his  own  feeling, 
does  he  defer  to  that  of  his  fellow-men.  It  is  at 
this  point  that  the  sense  of  justice  begins  to  operate 
— not  for  the  purpose  of  leading  him  to  appropriate 
his  own,  for  this  he  has  already  done ;  but  for  the 
purpose  of  leading  him  to  respect  the  property  of 
others.  It  was  not  justice  which  gave  to  either  of 
them  at  the  first  that  feeling  of  property,  which 
each  has  in  his  own  separate  domain;  any  more 
than  it  was  justice  which  gave  to  either  of  them 
that  feeling  of  affection  which  each  has  for  his  own 
children.  It  is  after,  and  not  before  these  feelings 
are  formed,  that  justice  steps  in  with  her  golden 
rule,  of  not  doing  to  others  as  we  would  not  others 
to  do  unto  us;  and,  all  conscious  as  we  are  of  the 
dislike  and  resentment  we  should  feel  on  the 
invasion  of  our  property,  it  teaches  to  defer  to  a 
similar  dislike  and  a  similar  resentment  in  other 
men.  And,  so  far  from  this  original  and  instinctive 
regard  for  this  property  which  is  my  own  serving 
at  all  to  impair,  when  once  the  moral  sense  comes 
into  play,  it  enhances  my  equitable  regard  for  the 
property  of  others.  It  is  just  with  me  the  pro- 
prietor, as  it  is  with  me  the  parent.  My  affection 
for  my  own  family  does  not  prompt  me  to  appro- 
priate the  family  of  another;  but  it  strengthens  my 
sympathetic  consideration  for  the  tenderness  and 
feeling  of  their  own  parent  towards  them.  My 
affection  for  my  own  field  does  not  incline  me  to 


100       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

seize  upon  that  of  another  man  ;  but  it  strengthens 
my  equitable  consideration  for  all  the  attachments 
and  the  claims  which  its  proprietor  has  upon  it. 
In  proportion  to  the  strength  of  that  instinct  which 
binds  me  to  my  own  offspring,  is  the  sympathy  I 
feel  with  the  tenderness  of  other  parents.  In 
proportion  to  the  strength  of  that  instinct  which 
binds  me  to  my  own  property,  is  the  sense  of 
equity  I  feel  towards  the  rights  of  all  other  pro- 
prietors. It  was  not  justice  which  gave  either  the 
one  instinct  or  the  other ;  but  justice  teaches  each 
man  to  bear  respect  to  that  instinct  in  another, 
which  he  feels  to  be  of  powerful  operation  in  his 
own  bosom. 

24.  It  is  in  virtue  of  my  sentient  nature  that  I 
am  so  painfully  alive  to  the  violence  done  upon  my 
own  body,  as  to  recoil  from  the  infliction  of  it 
upon  myself.  And  it  is  in  virtue  of  my  moral 
nature,  that,  alive  to  the  pain  of  other  bodies  than 
my  own,  I  refrain  from  the  infliction  of  it  upon 
them.  It  is  not  justice  which  gives  the  sensations; 
but  justice  pronounces  on  the  equal  respect  that  is 
due  to  the  sensations  of  all.  Neither  does  justice 
give  the  sensations  of  property,  but  it  finds  them ; 
and  pronounces  on  the  respect  which  each  owes 
to  the  sensations  of  all  the  rest.  It  was  not  justice 
which  gave  the  personal  feeling;  neither  is  it 
justice  which  gives  the  possessory  feeling.  Justice 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  process  by  which  this 
body  came  to  be  my  own ;  and  although  now,  per- 
haps, there  is  not  a  property,  at  least  in  the  civilized 
world,  which  may  not  have  passed  into  the  hand 
of  their  actual  possessors,  by  a  series  of  purchases, 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         101 

over  which  justice  had  the  direction — yet  there  was 
a  time  when  it  might  have  been  said,  that  justice 
has  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  process  by  which 
this  garden  came  to  be  my  own ;  and  yet,  then  as 
well  as  now,  it  would  have  been  the  utterance  of 
a  true  feeling,  that  he  who  touches  this  garden, 
touches  the  apple  of  mine  eye.  And  it  is  as  much 
the  dictate  of  justice,  that  we  shall  respect  the  one 
sensation  as  the  other.  He,  indeed,  who  has  the 
greatest  sensitiveness,  whether  about  his  own  person 
or  his  own  property,  will,  with  an  equal  principle 
of  justice  in  his  constitution,  have  the  greatest 
sympathy,  both  for  the  personal  and  the  proprie- 
tary rights  of  others.  This  view  of  it  saves  all 
the  impracticable  mysticism  that  has  gathered 
around  the  speculations  of  those,  who  conceive  of 
justice,  as  presiding  over  the  first  distributions  of 
property;  and  so  have  fallen  into  the  very  common 
mistake,  of  trying  to  account  for  that  which  had 
been  provided  for  by  the  wisdom  of  nature,  as  if  it 
had  been  provided  by  the  wisdom  and  the  principle 
of  man.  At  the  first  allocations  of  property, 
justice  may  have  had  no  hand  in  them.  They 
were  altogether  fortuitous.  One  man  set  himself 
down,  perhaps  on  a  better  soil  than  his  neighbour, 
and  chalked  out  for  himself  a  larger  territory,  at  a 
time  when  there  was  none  who  interfered  or  who 
offered  to  share  it  with  him ;  and  so  he  came  to  as 
firm  a  possessory  feeling  in  reference  to  his  wider 
domain,  as  the  other  has  in  reference  to  his  smaller. 
Our  metaphysical  jurists  are  sadly  puzzled  to 
account  for  the  original  inequalities  of  property, 
and  for  the  practical  acquiescence  of  all  men  in  the 


102       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

actual  and  very  unequal  distribution  of  it — having 
recourse  to  an  original  social  compact,  and  to  other 
fictions  alike  visionary.  But  if  there  be  truth  in 
our  theory,  it  is  just  as  easy  to  explain,  why  the 
humble  proprietor,  would  no  more  think  of  laying 
claim  to  certain  acres  of  his  rich  neighbour's  estate 
because  it  was  larger  than  his  own,  than  he  would 
think  of  laying  claim  to  certain  children  of  his 
neighbour's  family  because  it  was  larger — or  even 
of  laying  claim  to  certain  parts  of  his  neighbour's 
person  because  it  was  larger.  He  is  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  his  own  nature  to  be  aware,  that, 
were  the  circumstances  changed,  he  should  feel 
precisely  as  his  affluent  neighbour  does;  and  he 
respects  the  feeling  accordingly.  He  knows  that, 
if  himself  at  the  head  of  a  larger  property,  he 
would  have  the  same  affection  for  all  its  fields  that 
the  actual  proprietor  has ;  and  .that,  if  at  the  head 
of  a  larger  family,  he  would  have  the  same  affection 
with  the  actual  parent  for  all  its  children.  It  is 
by  making  justice  come  in  at  the  right  place,  that 
is,  not  prior  to  these  strong  affections  of  nature 
but  posterior  to  them,  that  the  perplexities  of  this 
inquiry  are  done  away.  The  principle  on  which 
it  arbitrates,  is,  not  the  comparative  magnitude 
of  the  properties,  but  the  relative  feelings  of  each 
actual  possessor  towards  each  actual  property;  and 
if  it  find  these  in  every  instance,  to  be  the  very 
feelings  which  all  men  would  have  in  the  circum- 
stances belonging  to  that  instance — it  attempts  no 
new  distribution,  but  gives  its  full  sanction  to  the 
distribution  which  is  already  before  it.  This  is 
the  real  origin  and  upholder  of  that  conservative 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         103 

influence  which  binds  together  the  rich  and  the 
poor  in  society;  and  thus  it  is  that  property  is 
respected  throughout  all  its  gradations. 

25.  It  is  from  the  treatment  of  an  original  as 
if  it  were  a  derived  affection,  that  the  whole 
obscurity  on  this  topic  has  arisen.  It  is  quite  as 
impossible  to  educe  the  possessory  feeling  from  an 
anterior  sense  of  justice,  or  from  a  respect  for  law — 
as  it  is  to  educe  the  parental  feeling  from  a  previous 
and  comprehensive  regard  for  the  interests  of 
humanity.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  general 
good  is  best  promoted  by  the  play  of  special  family 
affections ;  but  this  is  the  work  of  nature,  and  not 
the  work  of  man.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
wealth  and  comfort  of  society  are  inconceivably 
augmented  by  those  influences,  which  bind  each 
individual  nearly  as  much  to  his  own  property,  as 
he  is  bound  to  his  own  offspring.  But  in  the  one 
case  as  well  as  the  other,  there  were  certain 
instinctive  regards  that  came  first,  and  the  office 
of  justice  is  altogether  a  subsequent  one ;  not  to 
put  these  regards  into  the  breast  of  any,  but  to 
award  the  equal  deference  that  is  due  to  the 
regards  of  all — insomuch  that  the  vast  domain  of 
one  individual,  perhaps  transmitted  to  him  from 
generation  to  generation,  throughout  the  lengthened 
series  of  an  ancestry,  whose  feet  are  now  upon  the 
earth,  but  whose  top  reaches  the  clouds  and  is 
there  lost  in  distant  and  obscure  antiquity — is,  to 
the  last  inch  of  its  margin,  under  a  guardianship 
of  justice  as  unviolable,  as  that  which  assures 
protection  and  ownership  to  the  humble  possessor 
of  one  solitary  acre.      The  right  of  property  is  not 


104        AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

the  less  deferred  to,  either  because  its  divisions 
are  unequal,  or  because  its  origin  is  unknown. 
And,  even  when  history  tells  us  that  it  is  founded 
on  some  deed  of  iniquitous  usurpation,  there  is  a 
charm  in  the  continued  occupation,  that  prevails 
and  has  the  mastery  over  our  most  indignant 
remembrance  of  the  villany  of  other  days.  It  says 
much  for  the  strength  of  the  possessory  feeling, 
that,  even  in  less  than  half  a  century,  it  will,  if  legal 
claims  are  meanwhile  forborne,  cast  into  oblitera- 
tion, all  the  deeds,  and  even  all  the  delinquencies, 
which  attach  to  the  commencement  of  a  property. 
At  length  the  prescriptive  right  bears  every  thing 
before  it,  as  by  the  consuetude  of  English,  by  the 
use  and  wont  of  Scottish  law.  And  therefore, 
once  more,  instead  of  saying  with  Dr.  Paley  that 
it  is  the  law  of  the  land  which  constitutes  the  basis 
of  property — the  law  exhibits  her  best  wisdom, 
when  she  founds  on  the  materials  of  that  basis, 
which  nature  and  the  common  sense  of  mankind 
have  laid  before  her. 

26.  Dr.  Thomas  Brown,  we  hold  to  have  been 
partly  right  and  partly  wrong  upon  this  subject. 
He  evinces  a  true  discernment  of  what  may  be 
termed  the  pedigree  of  our  feelings  in  regard  to 
property,  when  he  says  and  says  admirably  well 
— that,*  "  Justice  is  not  what  constitutes  pro- 
perty ;  it  is  a  virtue  which  presupposes  property 
and  respects  it  however  constituted."  And  further, 
that — "justice  as  a  moral  virtue  is  not  the  creation 
of  property,  but  the  conformity  of  our  actions  to 

*  Lecture  lxxxiii. 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  105 

those  views  of  property,  which  vary  in  the  various 
states  of  society."  But  it  is  not  as  he  would 
affirm,  it  is  not  because  obedience  to  a  system  of 
law,  of  which  the  evident  tendency  is  to  the  public 
good,  is  the  object  of  our  moral  regard — it  is  not  this, 
which  moralizes,  if  we  may  be  allowed  such  an  ap- 
plication of  the  term,  or  rather,  which  constitutes 
the  virtuousness  of  our  respect  to  another  man's 
property.  This  is  the  common  mistake  of  those 
moralists,  who  would  ascribe  every  useful  direction 
or  habitude  of  man  to  some  previous  and  compre- 
hensive view  taken  by  himself  of  what  is  best  for  the 
good  of  the  individual  or  the  good  of  society;  instead 
of  regarding  such  habitude  as  the  fruit  of  a  special 
tendency,  impressed  direct  by  the  hand  of  nature, 
on  a  previous  and  comprehensive  view  taken  by  its 
author,  and  therefore  bearing  on  it  a  palpable 
indication  both  of  the  goodness  and  the  wisdom  of 
nature's  God — even  as  hunger  is  the  involuntary 
result  of  man's  physical  constitution,  and  not  of 
any  care  or  consideration  by  man  on  the  uses  of 
food.  The  truth  is — when,  deferring  to  another's 
right  of  property,  we  do  not  think  of  the  public 
good  in  the  matter  at  all.  But  we  are  glad,  in  the 
first  instance,  each  to  possess  and  to  use  and  to 
improve  all  that  we  are  able  to  do  without  moles- 
tation, whether  that  freedom  from  molestation  has 
been  secured  to  us  by  law  or  by  the  mere  circum- 
stances of  our  state  ;  and,  in  virtue  of  principles, 
not  resulting  from  any  anticipations  of  wisdom  or 
any  views  of  general  philanthropy,  (because  de- 
veloped in  early  childhood  and  long  before  we  are 
capable  of  being  either  philanthropists  or  legisla- 
k  2 


106  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

tors)  we  feel  a  strong  link  of  ownership  with  that 
which  we  have  thus  possessed  and  used,  and  on 
which  we  have  bestowed  our  improvements;  and 
we  are  aware  that  another  man,  in  similar  relation 
with  another  property,  will  feel  towards  it  in  like 
manner ;  and  a  sense  of  justice,  or  its  still  more 
significant  and  instructive  name,  of  equity,  suggests 
this  equality  between  me  and  him — that,  in  the 
same  manner  as  I  would  regard  his  encroachment 
on  myself  as  injurious,  so  it  were  alike  injurious 
in  me  to  make  a  similar  encroachment  upon  my 
neighbour. 

27.  We  have  expatiated  thus  long  on  the  origin 
and  rights  of  property — because  of  all  subjects,  it 
is  the  one,  regarding  which  our  writers  on  juris- 
prudence have  sent  forth  the  greatest  amount  of 
doubtful  and  unsatisfactory  metaphysics.  They 
labour  and  are  in  great  perplexity  to  explain  even 
the  rise  of  the  feeling  or  desire  that  is  in  the  mind 
regarding  it.  They  reason,  as  if  the  very  concep- 
tion of  property  was  that,  which  could  not  have 
entered  into  the  heart  of  man  without  a  previous 
sense  of  justice.  In  this  we  hold  them  to  have 
antedated  matters  wrong.  The  conception  of 
property  is  aboriginal ;  and  the  office  of  justice  is 
not  to  put  it  into  any  man's  head ;  but  to  arbitrate 
among  the  rival  feelings  of  cupidity,  or  the  arro- 
gant and  overpassing  claims  that  are  apt  to  get 
into  all  men's  heads — not  to  initiate  man  into  the 
notion  of  property  ;  but,  in  fact,  to  limit  and  re- 
strain his  notion  of  it — not  to  teach  the  creatures 
who  at  first  conceive  themselves  to  have  nothing, 
what  that  is  which  they  might  call  their  own ;  but 


POLITICAL  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         107 

to  teach  the  creatures  whose  first  and  earliest 
tendency  is  to  call  every  thing  their  own,  what  that 
is  which  they  must  refrain  from  and  concede  to 
others.  When  justice  rises  to  authority  among 
men,  her  office  is,  not  to  wed  each  individual  by  the 
link  of  property  to  that  which  he  formerly  thought 
it  was  not  competent  for  him  to  use  or  to  possess ; 
but  it  is  to  divorce  each  individual  from  that,  which 
it  is  not  rightly  competent  for  him  to  use  or  to 
possess — and  thus  restrict  each  to  his  own  rightful 
portion.  Its  office  in  fact  is  restrictive,  not  dis- 
pensatory. The  use  of  it  is,  not  to  give  the  first 
notion  of  property  to  those  who  were  destitute  of 
it,  but  to  limit  and  restrain  the  notion  with  those 
among  whom  it  is  apt  to  exist  in  a  state  of  overflow. 
The  use  of  law,  in  short,  the  great  expounder 
and  enforcer  of  property,  is  not  to  instruct  the 
men,  who  but  for  her  lessons  would  appropriate 
none;  but  it  is  to  restrain  the  men  who,  but 
for  her  checks  and  prohibitions,  would  monopolize 
all. 

28.  Such  then  seems  to  have  been  the  purpose 
of  nature  in  so  framing  our  mental  constitution, 
that  we  not  only  appropriate  from  the  first;  but 
feel,  each,  such  a  power  in  those  circumstances, 
which  serve  to  limit  the  appropriation  of  every  one 
man  and  to  distinguish  them  from  those  of  others — 
that  all,  as  if  with  common  and  practical  consent, 
sit  side  by  side  together,  without  conflict  and 
without  interference,  on  their  own  respective  por- 
tions, however  unequal,  of  the  territory  in  which 
they  are  placed.  On  the  uses,  the  indispensable 
uses  of  such  an  arrangement,  we  need  not  ex- 


108         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

patiate.*  The  hundred-fold  superiority,  in  the 
amount  of  produce  for  the  subsistence  of  human 
beings,  which  an  appropriated  country  has  over 
an  equal  extent  of  a  like  fertile  but  unappro- 
priated, and,  therefore,  unreclaimed  wilderness,  is 
too  obvious  to  be  explained.  It  may  be  stated 
however ;  and  when  an  economy  so  beneficial, 
without  which  even  a  few  stragglers  of  our  race 
could  not  be  supported  in  comfort ;  and  a 
large  human  family,  though  many  times  inferior 
to  that  which  now  peoples  our  globe,  could  not  be 
supported  at  all — when  the  effect  of  this  economy, 
in  multiplying  to  a  degree  inconceivable  the  aliment 
of  human  bodies,  is  viewed  in  connexion  with  those 
prior  tendencies  of  the  human  mind  which  gave  it 
birth,  we  cannot  but  regard  the  whole  as  an 
instance,  and  one  of  the  strongest  which  it  is  possi- 
ble to  allege,  of  the  adaptation  of  external  nature 
to  that  mental  constitution,  wherewith  the  Author 
of  nature  hath  endowed  us. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

On  those  special  Affections  which  conduce  to  the 
economic  well-being  of  Society, 

1.   We  now  proceed  to  consider  the  economic,  in 
contra-distinction  to   the  civil  and  political  well- 

•  This  we  hare  done  at  greater  length  in  our  work  on  Political 
Economy. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  109 

being  of  society,  to  the  extent  that  this  is  depen- 
dent on  certain  mental  tendencies — whether  these 
can  be  demonstrated  by  analysis  to  be  only  secon- 
dary results,  or  in  themselves  to  be  simple  elements 
of  the  human  constitution.  We  may  be  said 
indeed,  to  have  already  bordered  on  this  part  of 
our  argument — when  considering  the  origin  and 
the  rights  of  property ;  or  the  manner  in  which 
certain  possessory  affections,  that  appear  even  in 
the  infancy  of  the  mind  and  anticipate  by  many 
years  the  exercise  of  human  wisdom,  lead  to  a 
better  distribution,  both  of  the  earth  and  of  all  the 
valuables  which  are  upon  it,  than  human  wisdom 
could  possibly  have  devised,  or  at  least  than  human 
power  without  the  help  of  these  special  affections 
could  have  carried  into  effect.  For  there  might 
be  a  useful  economy  sanctioned  by  law,  yet  which 
law  could  not  have  securely  established,  unless  it 
had  had  a  foundation  in  nature.  For  in  this  respect, 
there  is  a  limit  to  the  force  even  of  the  mightiest 
despotism — insomuch  that  the  most  absolute 
monarch  on  the  face  of  the  earth  must  so  far  con- 
form himself,  to  the  indelible  human  nature  of  the 
subjects  over  whom  he  proudly  bears  the  sway  ; 
else,  in  the  reaction  of  their  outraged  principles 
and  feelings,  they  would  hurl  him  from  his  throne. 
And  thus  it  is  well,  that,  so  very  generally  in  the 
different  countries  of  the  world,  law,  both  in  her 
respect  for  the  possessory  and  acquired  rights  of 
property  and  in  her  enforcement  of  them,  has, 
instead  of  chalking  out  an  arbitrary  path  for  her- 
self, only  followed  where  nature  beforehand  had 
pointed  the  way.    It  is  far  better,  that,  rather  than 


110        AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

devise  a  jurisprudence  made  up  of  her  own  capri- 
cious inventions — she  should,  to  so  great  an  extent, 
have  but  ratified  a  prior  jurisprudence,  founded  on 
the  original  or  at  least  the  universal  affections  of 
humanity.  We  know  few  things  more  instructive 
than  a  study  of  the  mischievous  effects,  which 
attend  a  deviation  from  this  course — of  which,  we 
at  present  shall  state  two  remarkable  instances. 
The  evils  which  ensue  when  law  traverses  any  of 
those  principles,  that  lie  deeply  seated  in  the  very 
make  and  constitution  of  the  mind,  bring  out  into 
more  striking  exhibition  the  superior  wisdom  of 
that  nature  from  which  she  has  departed — even  as 
the  original  perfection  of  a  mechanism  is  never 
more  fully  demonstrated,  than  by  the  contrast  of 
those  repeated  failures,  which  shows  of  every  change 
or  attempted  improvement,  that  it  but  deranges  or 
deteriorates  the  operations  of  the  instrument  in 
question.  And  thus  too  it  is,  that  a  lesson  of 
sound  theology  may  be  gathered,  from  the  errors 
with  their  accompanying  evils  of  unsound  legislation 
— on  those  occasions  when  the  wisdom  of  man 
comes  into  conflict  and  collision  with  the  wisdom 
of  God. 

2.  Of  the  two  instances  that  we  are  now  to  pro- 
duce, in  which  law  hath  made  a  deviation  from 
nature,  and  done  in  consequence  a  tremendous 
quantity  of  evil,  the  first  is  the  Tythe  System  of 
England.  We  do  not  think  that  the  provision  of 
her  established  clergy  is  in  any  way  too  liberal — 
but  very  much  the  reverse.  Still  we  hold  it  signally 
unfortunate  that  it  should  have  been  levied  so,  as 
to  do  most  unnecessary  violence  to  the  possessory 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  Ill 

feeling,  both  of  the  owners  and  occupiers  of  land  all 
over  the  country.  Had  the  tythe,  like  some  other 
of  the  public  burdens,  been  commuted  into  a 
pecuniary  and  yearly  tax  on  the  proprietors — the 
possessory  feeling  would  not  have  been  so  painfully 
or  so  directly  thwarted  by  it.  But  it  is  the  con- 
stant intromission  of  the  tythe  agents  or  proctors 
with  the  fields,  and  the  ipsa  corpora  that  are  within 
the  limits  of  the  property — which  exposes  this 
strong  natural  affection  to  an  annoyance  that  is  felt 
to  be  intolerable.  But  far  the  best  method  of 
adjusting  the  state  of  the  law  to  those  principles 
of  ownership  which  are  anterior  to  law,  and  which 
all  its  authority  is  unable  to  quench — would  be  a 
commutation  into  land.  Let  the  church  property 
in  each  parish  be  dissevered  in  this  way  from  its 
main  territory ;  and  then,  both  for  the  lay  and  the 
ecclesiastical  domain,  there  would  be  an  accordance 
of  the  legal  with  the  possessory  right.  It  is  because 
these  are  in  such  painful  dissonance,  under  the 
existing  state  of  things,  that  there  is  so  much  ex- 
asperation in  England,  connected  with  the  support 
and  maintenance  of  her  clergy.  No  doubt  law 
can  enforce  her  own  arrangements,  however  arbitrary 
and  unnatural  they  might  be  ;  but  it  is  a  striking 
exhibition,  we  have  always  thought,  of  the  triumph 
of  the  possessory  over  the  legal,  that,  in  the  contests 
between  the  two  parties,  the  clergy  have  constantly 
been  losing  ground.  And,  in  resistance  to  all  the 
opprobrium  which  has  been  thrown  upon  them,  do 
we  affirm,  that,  with  a  disinterestedness  which  is 
almost  heroic,  they  have,  in  deed  and  in  practice, 
forborne  to  the  average  extent  of  at  least  one  hal^ 


112        AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

the  assertion  of  their  claims.  The  truth  is,  that 
the  felt  odium  which  attaches  to  the  system  ought 
never  to  have  fallen  upon  them.  It  is  an  insepar- 
able consequence  of  the  arrangement  itself,  by 
which  law  hath  traversed  nature — so  as  to  be  con- 
stantly rubbing,  as  it  were,  against  that  possessory 
feeling,  which  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
strongest  of  her  instincts.  There  are  few  refor- 
mations that  would  do  more  to  sweeten  the  breath 
of  English  society,  than  the  removal  of  this  sore 
annoyance — the  brooding  fountain  of  so  many 
heartburnings  and  so  many  festerments,  by  which 
the  elements  of  an  unappeasable  warfare  are  ever 
at  work  between  the  landed  interest  of  the  country, 
and  far  the  most  important  class  of  its  public  func- 
tionaries ;  and,  what  is  the  saddest  perversity  of  all, 
those,  whose  office  it  is  by  the  mild  persuasions  of 
Christianity,  to  train  the  population  of  our  land 
in  the  lessons  of  love  and  peace  and  righteousness 
— they  are  forced  by  the  necessities  of  a  system 
which  many  of  them  deplore,  into  the  attitude  of 
extortioners;  and  placed  in  that  very  current, 
along  which  a  people's  hatred  and  a  people's 
obloquy  are  wholly  unavoidable.*  Even  under 
the  theocracy  of  the  Jews,  the  system  of  tithes  was 

There  is  often  the  utmost  injustice  in  that  professional  odium 
which  is  laid  upon  a  whole  order,  and  none  have  suffered  more 
under  it,  than  the  clergy  of  England  have,  from  the  sweeping 
and  indiscriminate  charges,  which  have  been  preferred  against 
them,  by  the  demagogues  of  our  land.  '  We  believe  that  nothing 
has  given  more  of  edge  and  currency  to  these  invectives,  than 
the  very  unfortunate  way  in  which  their  maintenance  has  been 
provided  for :  and  many  are  the  amiable  and  accomplished  indi- 
viduals among  themselves  to  whom  it  is  a  matter  of  downrigUt 
agony. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  113 

with  difficulty  upholden ;  and  many  are  the  remon- 
strances which  the  gifted  seers  of  Israel  held  with 
its  people,  for  having  brought  of  the  lame  and  the 
diseased  as  offerings.  Such,  in  fact,  is  the  violence 
done  by  this  system  to  the  possessory  feelings,  that 
a  conscientious  submission  to  its  exactions,  may  be 
regarded  as  a  most  decisive  test  of  religious  obe- 
dience— such  an  obedience,  indeed,  as  was  but  ill 
maintained,  even  in  the  days  of  the  Hebrew  polity, 
although  it  had  the  force  of  temporal  sanctions, 
with  the  miracles  and  manifestations  of  a  presid- 
ing deity  to  sustain  it.  Unless  by  the  express 
appointment  of  heaven,  this  yoke  of  Judaism, 
unaccompanied  as  it  now  is  by  the  peculiar  and 
preternatural  enforcements  of  that  dispensation, 
ought  never  to  have  been  perpetuated  in  the  days 
of  Christianity.  There  are  distinct,  and,  we  hold, 
valid  reasons,  for  the  national  maintenance  of  an 
order  of  men  in  the  capacity  of  religious  instructors 
to  the  people.  But  maintenance  in  a  way  so 
obnoxious  to  nature,  is  alike  adverse  to  a  sound 
civil  and  a  sound  Christian  policy.  Both  the 
cause  of  religion  and  the  cause  of  loyalty  have 
suffered  by  it.  The  alienation  of  the  church's 
wealth,  were  a  deadly  blow  to  the  best  and  highest 
interests  of  England;  but  there  are  few  things 
which  would  conduce  more  to  the  strength  and 
peace  of  our  nation,  than  a  fair  and  right  commu- 
tation of  it. 

3.  Our  next  veryflagrant  example  of  a  mischievous 
collision  between  the  legal  and  the  possessory,  is 
the  English  system  of  poor  laws.  By  law  each 
man  who  can  make  good  his  plea  of  necessity,  has 


114       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

a  claim  for  the  relief  of  it,  from  the  owners  or 
occupiers  of  the  soil,  or  from  the  owners  and 
occupiers  of  houses ;  and  never,  till  the  end  of 
time,  will  all  the  authority,  and  all  the  enactments 
of  the  statute-book,  be  able  to  divest  them  of  the 
feeling,  that  their  property  is  invaded.  Law 
never  can  so  counterwork  the  strong  possessory 
feeling,  as  to  reconcile  the  proprietors  of  England 
to  this  legalized  enormity,  or  rid  them  of  the 
sensation  of  a  perpetual  violence.  It  is  this  mal- 
adjustment between  the  voice  that  nature  gives 
forth  on  the  right  of  property,  aud  the  voice  that 
arbitrary  law  gives  forth  upon  it — it  is  this,  which 
begets  something  more  than  a  painful  insecurity  as 
to  the  stability  of  their  possessions.  There  is 
besides,  a  positive,  and  what  we  should  call,  a  most 
natural  irritation.  That  strong  possessory  feeling, 
by  which  each  is  wedded  to  his  own  domain  in  the 
relation  of  its  rightful  proprietor ;  and  which  they 
can  no  more  help,  beeause  as  much  a  part  of  their 
original  constitution,  than  the  parental  feeling  by 
which  each  is  wedded  to  his  own  family  in  the 
relation  of  its  natural  protector — this  strong 
possessory  feeling,  we  say,  is,  under  their  existing 
economy,  subject  all  over  England  to  a  perpetual 
and  most  painful  annoyance.  And  accordingly  we 
do  find  the  utmost  acerbity  of  tone  and  temper, 
among  the  upper  classes  of  England,  in  reference 
to  their  poor.  We  are  not  sure,  indeed,  if  there 
be  any  great  difference,  with  many  of  them, 
between  the  feeling  which  they  have  towards  the 
poor,  and  the  feeling  which  they  have  towards 
poachers.      It  is  true  that  the  law  is  on  the  side 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  115 

of  ttie  one,  and  against  the  other.  Yet  it  goes 
most  strikingly  to  prove,  how  impossible  it  is  for 
law  to  carry  the  acquiescence  of  the  heart,  when 
it  contravenes  the  primary  and  urgent  affections  of 
nature — that  paupers  are  in  any  degree  assimilated 
to  poachers  in  the  public  imagination;  and  that 
the  inroads  of  both  upon  property  should  be 
resented,  as  if  both  alike  were  a  sort  of  trespass 
or  invasion. 

4.  And  it  is  further  interesting  to  observe  the 
effect  of  this  unnatural  state  of  things  on  the 
paupers  themselves.  Even  in  their  deportment, 
we  might  read  an  unconscious  homage  to  the 
possessory  right.  And  whereas,  it  has  been 
argued  in  behalf  of  a  poor-rate,  that,  so  far  from 
degrading,  it  sustains  an  independence  of  spirit 
among  the  peasantry,  by  turning  that  which  would 
have  been  a  matter  of  beggary  into  a  matter  of 
rightful  and  manly  assertion — there  is  none  who 
has  attended  the  meetings  of  a  parish  vestry,  that 
will  not  readily  admit,  the  total  dissimilarity  which 
obtains  between  the  assertion  to  a  right  of  main- 
tenance there,  and  the  assertion  of  any  other  right 
whatever,  whether  on  the  field  of  war  or  of 
patriotism.  There  may  be  much  of  the  insolence 
of  beggary ;  but  along  with  this,  there  is  a  most 
discernible  mixture  of  its  mean,  and  crouching,  and 
ignoble  sordidness.  There  is  no  common  quality 
whatever  between  the  clamorous  onset  of  this 
worthless  and  dissipated  crew,  and  the  generous 
battle-cry  pro  arts  etfocis,  in  which  the  humblest 
of  our  population  will  join — when  paternal  acres, 
or  the  rights  of  any  actually  holden  property  are 


116       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

invaded.  In  the  mind  of  the  pauper,  with  all  his 
challenging  and  all  his  boisterousness,  there  is  still 
the  latent  impression,  that,  after  all,  there  is  a 
certain  want  of  firmness  about  his  plea.  He  is 
not  altogether  sure  of  the  ground  upon  which  he 
is  standing ;  and,  in  spite  of  all  that  law  has  done 
to  pervert  his  imagination,  the  possessory  right  of 
those  against  whom  he  prefers  his  demand,  stares 
him  in  the  face,  and  disturbs  him  not  a  little  out 
of  that  confidence,  wherewith  a  man  represents  and 
urges  the  demands  of  unquestionable  justice.  In 
spite  of  himself,  he  cannot  avoid  having  somewhat 
the  look  and  the  consciousness  of  a  poacher. 
And  so  the  effect  of  England's  most  unfortunate 
blunder,  has  been,  to  alienate  on  the  one  hand  her 
rich  from  her  poor ;  and  on  the  other  to  debase 
into  the  very  spirit  and  sordidness  of  beggary,  a 
large  and  ever-increasing  mass  of  her  population. 
There  is  but  one  way,  we  can  never  cease  to  affirm, 
by  which  this  grievous  distemper  of  the  body 
politic  can  be  removed.  And  that  is,  by  causing 
the  law  of  property  to  harmonize  with  the  strong 
and  universal  instincts  of  nature  in  regard  to  it ; 
by  making  the  possessory  right  to  be  at  least 
as  inviolable  as  the  common  sense  of  mankind 
would  make  it ;  and  as  to  the  poor,  by  utterly 
recalling  the  blunder  that  England  made,  when 
she  turned  into  a  matter  of  legal  constraint,  that 
which  should  ever  be  a  matter  of  love  and  liberty, 
and  when  she  aggravated  ten-fold  the  dependence 
and  misery  of  the  lower  classes,  by  divorcing  the 
cause  of  humanity  from  the  willing  generosities,  the 
spontaneous  and  unforced  sympathies  of  our  nature. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  117 

5.  But  this  brings  into  view  another  of  our 
special  affections — our  compassion  for  the  distress, 
including,  as  one  of  its  most  prominent  and 
frequently  recurring  objects,  our  compassion  for 
the  destitution  of  others.  We  have  already  seen, 
how  nature  hath  provided,  by  one  of  its  implanted 
affections,  for  the  establishment  of  property;  and 
for  the  respect  in  which,  amid  all  its  inequalities, 
it  is  held  by  society.  But  helpless  destitution 
forms  one  extreme  of  this  inequality,  which  a  mere 
system  of  property  appears  to  leave  out ;  and 
which,  if  not  otherwise  provided  for  by  the  wisdom 
of  nature  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind, 
would  perhaps  justify  an  attempt  by  the  wisdom 
of  man  to  provide  for  it  in  the  constitution  of 
human  law.  We  do  not  instance,  at  present, 
certain  other  securities  which  have  been  instituted 
by  the  hand  of  nature,  and  which,  if  not  traversed 
and  enfeebled  by  a  legislation  wholly  uncalled  for, 
would  of  themselves,  prevent  the  extensive  pre- 
valence of  want  in  society.  These  are  the  urgent 
law  of  self-preservation,  prompting  to  industry  on 
the  one  hand  and  to  economy  on  the  other ;  and 
the  strong  law  of  relative  affection — which  laws,  if 
not  tampered  with  and  undermined  in  their  force 
and  efficacy  by  the  law  of  pauperism,  would  not 
have  relieved,  but  greatly  better,  would  have 
prevented  the  vast  majority  of  those  cases  which 
fill  the  workhouses,  and  swarm  around  the  vestries 
of  England.  Still  these,  however,  would  not  have 
prevented  all  poverty.  *A  few  instances,  like 
those  which  are  so  quietly  and  manageably,  but 
withal  effectually  met  in  the  country  parishes  of 


118       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THK 

Scotland,   would    still  occur  in  every  little  com- 
munity, however  virtuous  or  well  regulated.     And 
in  regard  to   these,   there  is   another  law  of  the 
mental  constitution,  by  which  nature  hath  made 
special  provision  for  them — even  the  beautiful  law 
of  compassion,   in  virtue  of  which   the    sight   of 
another  in  agony,  (and  most  of  all  perhaps  in  the 
agony  of  pining  hunger),  would,  if  unrelieved,  create 
a   sensation    of    discomfort   in   the    heart   of   the 
observer,  scarcely  inferior  to  what  he  should  have 
felt,  had  the  suffering  and  the  agony  been  his  own. 
6.  But  in  England,  the  state,  regardless  of  all 
the  indices  which  nature  had  planted  in  the  human 
constitution,    hath   taken   the    regulation    of   this 
matter  into  its  own  hands.      By  its  law  of  pauper- 
ism, it  hath,  in  the  first  instance,  ordained  for  the 
poor  a  legal  property  in  the   soil;    and  thereby, 
running  counter  to  the  strong  possessory  affection, 
it  hath  done  violence  to  the  natural  and  original 
distribution  of  the  land,  and  loosened  the  secure 
hold  of  each  separate  owner,  on  the  portion  which 
belongs   to   him.      And   in  the    second   instance, 
distrustful  of  the  efficacy  of  compassion,  it,  by  way 
of    helping    forward    its    languid    energies,    hath 
applied  the  strong  hand  of  power  to  it.     Now  it  so 
happens,  that  nothing  more  effectually  stifles  com- 
passion, or  puts  it  to  flight,  than  to  be  thus  meddled 
with.      The  spirit  of  kindness  utterly  refuses  the 
constraints  of  authority;  and  law  in  England,  by 
taking  the  business  of  charity  upon  itself,  instead 
of   supplementing,  hath. well   nigh  destroyed  the 
anterior   provision   made   for   it   by  nature — thus 
leaving  it  to  be  chiefly  provided  for,  by  methods 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  119 

and  by  a  machinery  of  its  own.      The  proper  func- 
tion of  law  is  to  enforce  the  rights  of  justice,  or  to 
defend  against  the  violation  of  them ;    and  never 
does  it  make  a  more  flagrant  or  a  more  hurtful 
invasion,  beyond  the  confines  of  its  own  legitimate 
territory — than,  when  confounding  humanity  with 
justice,  it  would  apply  the  same  enforcements  to 
the  one  virtue  as  to  the  other.      It  should  have 
taken  a  lesson  from  the  strong  and  evident  distinc- 
tion which  nature  hath  made  between  these  two 
virtues,  in  her  construction  of  our  moral  system ; 
and  should  have  observed  a  corresponding  distinc- 
tion in  its  own  treatment  of  them — resenting  the 
violation  of  the  one ;  but  leaving  the  other  to  the 
free  interchanges  of  good-will  on  the  side  of  the 
dispenser,   and   of  gratitude  on   the    side    of   the 
recipient.     When  law,  distrustful  of  the  compassion 
that  is  in  all  hearts,  enacted  a  system  of  compulsory 
relief,  lest,  in  our  neglect  of  others,  the  indigent 
should  starve ;  it  did  incomparably  worse,  than  if, 
distrustful  of  the  appetite  of  hunger,  it  had  enacted 
for  the  use  of  food  a  certain  regimen  of  times  and 
quantities,  lest,  neglectful  of  ourselves,  our  bodies 
might  have  perished.      Nature  has  made  a  better 
provision  than  this  for  both  these  interests;  but 
law  has  done  more  mischief  by  interference  with 
the  one,  than  it  could  ever  have  done  by  interference 
with  the  other.      It  could  not   have  quelled   the 
appetite  of  hunger,  which  still,  in  spite  of  all  the 
law's  officiousness,  would  have  remained  the  great 
practical  impellent  to  the  use  of  food,  for  the  well- 
being  of  our  physical  economy.      But  it  has  done 
much  to   quell  and  to  overbear  the  affection  of 


120        AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

compassion — that  never-failing  impellent,  in  a  free 
and  natural  state  of  things,  to  deeds  of  charity,  for 
the  well-being  of  the  social  economy.  The  evils 
which  have  ensued  are  of  too  potent  and  pressing 
a  character  to  require  description.  They  have 
placed  England  in  a  grievous  dilemma,  from  which 
she  can  only  be  extricated,  by  the  new  modelling 
of  this  part  of  her  statute-book,  and  a  nearer 
conformity  of  its  provisions  to  the  principles  of 
natural  jurisprudence.  Meanwhile  they  afford  an 
emphatic  demonstration  for  the  superior  wisdom  of 
nature,  which  is  never  so  decisively  or  so  triumph- 
antly attested,  as  by  the  mischief  that  is  done,  when 
her  processes  are  contravened  or  her  principles 
are  violated.* 

7.  We  are  aware  of  a  certain  ethical  system, 
that  would  obliterate  the  distinction  between  justice 
and  humanity,  by  running  or  resolving  the  one  into 
the  other — affirming  of  the  former  more  particularly, 
that  all  its  virtue  is  founded  on  its  utility ;  and  that 
therefore  justice,  to  which  may  be  added  truth,  is 
no  further  a  virtue,  than  as  it  is  instrumental  of 
good  to  men — thus  making  both  truth  and  justice, 
mere  species  or  modifications  of  benevolence.  Now, 
as  we  have  already  stated,  it  is  not  with  the  theory 


*  Without  contending  for  the  language  of  our  older  moralists, 
the  distinction  which  they  mean  to  express,  by  virtues  of  perfect 
and  imperfect  obligation,  has  a  foundation  in  reality  and  in  the 
nature  of  things — as  between  justice  where  the  obligation  on  one 
side  implies  a  counterpart  right  upon  the  other,  and  benevolence 
to  which,  whatever  the  obligation  may  be  on  the  part  of  the  dis- 
penser, there  is  no  corresponding  right  on  the  part  of  the  recipient. 
The  proper  office  of  law  is  to  enforce  the  former  virtues.  When  it 
attempts  to  enforce  the  latter,  it  makes  a  mischievous  extension 
of  itself  beyond  its  own  legitimate  boundaries. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         121 

of  morals,  but  with  the  moral  constitution  of  man 
that  we  have  properly  to  do ;  and,  most  certain  it 
is,  that  man  does  feel  the  moral  Tightness  both  of 
justice  and  truth,  irrespective  altogether  of  their 
consequences — or,  at  least,  apart  from  any  such 
view  to  these  consequences  at  the  time,  as  the 
mind  is  at  all  conscious  of.  There  is  an  appetite 
of  our  sentient  nature  which  terminates  in  food, 
and  that  is  irrespective  of  all  its  subsequent  utilities 
to  the  animal  economy ;  and  there  is  an  appetite 
for  doing  what  is  right  which  terminates  in  virtue, 
and  which  bears  as  little  respect  to  its  utilities — 
whether  for  the  good  of  self  or  for  the  good  of 
society.  The  man  whom  some  temptation  to  what 
is  dishonourable  would  put  into  a  state  of  recoil 
and  restlessness,  has  no  other  aim,  in  the  resistance 
he  makes  to  it,  than  simply  to  make  full  acquittal 
of  his  integrity.  This  is  his  landing  place;  and 
he  looks  no  further.  There  may  be  a  thousand 
dependent  blessings  to  humanity,  from  the  observa- 
tion of  moral  rectitude.  But  the  pure  and  simple 
appetency  for  rectitude,  rests  upon  this  as  its  object, 
without  any  onward  reference  to  the  consequences 
which  shall  flow  from  it.  This  consideration  alone 
is  sufficient  to  dispose  of  the  system  of  utility — as 
being  metaphysically  incorrect  in  point  of  concep- 
tion, and  incorrect  in  the  expression  of  it.  If  a 
man  can  do  virtuously,  when  not  aiming  at  the 
useful,  and  not  so  much  as  thinking  of  it — then  to 
design  and  execute  what  is  useful,  may  be  and  is  a 
virtue;  but  it  is  not  all  virtue.* 

•  If  our  moral  judgment  tell  that  some  particular  thing  is  right, 
VOL.  II.  F 


122      AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

8.  There  is  one  way  in  which  a  theorist  may- 
take  refuge  from  this  conclusion.  It  is  quite  pal- 
pable, that  a  man  often  feels  himself  to  be  doing 
virtuously — when,  to  all  sense,  he  is  not  thinking 
of  the  utilities  which  follow  in  its  train.  But  then 
it  may  be  affirmed,  that  he  really  is  so  thinking — \ 
although  he  is  not  sensible  of  it.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  of  such  being  the  actual  economy  of 
the  world,  such  the  existing  arrangement  of  its* 
laws  and  its  sequences — that  virtue  and  happiness 
are  very  closely  associated;  and  that,  no  less  in 
those  instances*  where  the  resulting  happiness  is 
not  at  all  thought  of,  than  in  those  where  happiness 
is  the  direct  and  declared  object  of  the  virtue. 
Who  can  doubt  that  truth  and  justice  bear  as  mani- 
fold and  as  important  a  subserviency  to  the  good 
of  the  species  as  beneficence  does? — and  yet  it  is 
only  with  the  latter,  that  this  good  is  the  object  of 
our  immediate  contemplation.  But  then  it  is 
affirmed,  that,  when  two  terms  are  constantly 
associated  in  nature,  there  must  be  as  constant  an 
association  of  them  in  the  mind  of  the  observer  of 
nature — an  association  at  length  so  habitual,  and 
therefore  so  rapid,  that  we  become  utterly  uncon- 
scious of  it.     Of  this  we  have  examples,  in  the 


without  our  adverting  to  its  utility — then  though  all  that  we  hold 
to  be  morally  right  should  he  proved  by  observation  to  yield  the 
maximum  of  utility,  utility  is  not  on  that  account  the  mind's  cri- 
terion for  the  Tightness  of  this  particular  thing,  God  bath  given 
us  the  sense  of  what  is  right ;  and  He  hath  besides  so  ordained  the 
system  of  things,  that  what  is  right  is  generally  that  which  is 
most  useful — yet,  in  many  instances,  it  is  not  the  perceived  use- 
fulness, which  makes  us  recognise  it  to  be  right.  We  agree  too 
with  Bishop  Butler  in  not  venturing  to  assume  that  God's  sole 
end  in  creation  was  the  production  of  the  greatest  happiness. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  123 

most  frequent  and  familiar  operations  of  human  life. 
In  the  act  of  reading,  every  alphabetical  letter 
must  have  been  present  to  the  mind — yet  how  many 
thousands  of  them,  in  the  course  of  a  single  hour, 
must  have  past  in  fleeting  succession,  without  so 
much  as  one  moment's  sense  of  their  presence, 
which  the  mind  has  any  recollection  of.  And  it  is 
the  same  in  listening  to  an  acquaintance,  when  we 
receive  the  whole  meaning  and  effect  of  his  dis- 
course, without  the  distinct  consciousness  of  very 
many  of  those  individual  words  which  still  were 
indispensable  to  the  meaning.  Nay,  there  are  other 
and  yet  more  inscrutable  mysteries  in  the  human 
constitution ;  and  which  relate,  not  to  the  thoughts 
that  we  conceive  without  being  sensible  of  them, 
but  even  to  the  volitions  that  we  put  forth,  and  to 
very  many  of  which  we  are  alike  insensible.  We 
have  only  to  reflect  on  the  number  and  complexity 
of  those  muscles  which  are  put  into  action,  in  the 
mere  processes  of  writing  or  walking,  or  even  of  so 
balancing  ourselves  as  to  maintain  a  posture  of 
stability.  It  is  understood  to  be  at  the  bidding  of 
the  will,  that  each  of  our  muscles  performs  its  dis- 
tinct office ;  and  yet,  out  of  the  countless  volitions, 
which  had  their  part  and  their  play,  in  these  com- 
plicated, and  yet  withal  most  familiar  and  easily 
practicable  operations — how  many  there  are  which 
wholly  escape  the  eye  of  consciousness.  And  thus 
too,  recourse  may  be  had  to  the  imagination  of 
certain  associating  processes,  too  hidden  for  being 
the  objects  of  sense  at  the  time,  and  too  fugitive 
for  being  the  objects  of  remembrance  afterwards. 
And  on  the  strength  of  these  it  may  be  asked — 


124       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

how  are  we  to  know,  that  the  utility  of  truth  and 
justice  is  not  present  to  the  mind  of  man,  when  he 
discharges  the  obligation  of  these  virtues ,  and  how 
are  we  to  know,  that  it  is  not  the  undiscoverable 
thought  of  this  utility,  which  forms  the  impellent 
principle  of  that  undiscoverable  volition,  by  which 
man  is  urged  to  the  performance  of  them  ? 

9.  Now  we  are  precluded  from  replying  to  this 
question  in  any  other  way,  than  that  the  theory 
which  requires  such  an  argument  for  its  support, 
may  be  said  to  fetch  all  its  materials  from   the 
region  of  conjecture.     It  ventures  on  the  affirma- 
tion of  what  is  going  on  in  a  terra  incognita  ;  and 
we   have   not   the    means    within  our  reach,  for 
meeting  it  in  the  terms  of  a  positive  contradiction. 
But  we  can  at  least  say,  that  a  mere  argwnentum 
ab  ignorantia  is  not  a  sufficient  basis  on  which  to 
ground  a  philosophic  theory ;    and  that  thus  to 
fetch  an  hypothesis  from  among  the  inscrutabilities 
of  the  mind,  to  speak  of  processes  going  on  there 
so  quick  and  so  evanescent  that  the  eye  of  con- 
sciousness  cannot   discover   them — is   to  rear   a 
superstructure  not  upon  the  facts  which  lie  within 
the  limit  of  separation  between  the  known  and  the 
unknown,  but  upon  the  fancies  which  lie  without 
this  limit.      A  great  deal  more  is  necessary  for 
the  establishment  of  an  assertion,  than  that  an  ad- 
versary cannot  disprove  it.    A  thousand  possibilities 
may  be  affirmed  which  are  susceptible  neither  of 
proof  nor  of  disproof ;  and  surely  it  were  the  worst 
of  logic  to  accept  as  proof,  the  mere  circumstance 
that  they  are  beyond  the  reach  of  disproof.      They 
in  fact,  lie  alike  beyond  the  reach  of  both ;  in  which 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY,         125 

case  they  should  be  ranked  among  the  figments  of 
mere  imagination,  and  not  among  the  findings  of 
experience.  How  are  we  to  know  but  that,  in  the 
bosom  of  our  great  planetary  amplitude,  there  do 
not  float,  and  in  elliptic  orbits  round  the  sun, 
pieces  of  matter  vastly  too  diminutive  for  our 
telescopes;  and  that  thus  the  large  intermediate 
spaces  between  the  known  bodies  of  the  system, 
instead  of  so  many  desolate  blanks,  are  in  fact, 
peopled  with  little  worlds — all  of  them  teeming, 
like  our  own,  with  busy  and  cheerful  animation. 
Now,  in  the  powerlessness  of  our  existing  tele- 
scopes, we  do  not  know  but  it  may  be  so.  But 
we  will  not  believe  that  it  is  so,  till  a  telescope  of 
power  enough  be  invented,  for  disclosing  this  scene 
of  wonders  to  our  observation.  And  it  is  the 
same  of  the  moral  theory  that  now  engages  us.  It 
rests,  not  upon  what  it  finds  among  the  arcana  of 
the  human  spirit,  but  upon  what  it  fancies  to  be 
there ;  and  they  are  fancies  too  which  we  cannot 
deny,  but  which  we  will  not  admit — till,  by  some 
improved  power  of  internal  observation,  they  are 
turned  into  findings.  We  are  quite  sensible  of 
the  virtuousness  of  truth;  but  we  have  not  yet 
been  made  sensible,  that  we  always  recognise  this 
virtuousness,  because  of  a  glance  we  have  had  of 
the  utility  of  truth — though  only  perhaps  for  a 
moment  of  time,  too  minute  and  microscopical  for 
being  noticed  by  the  naked  eye  of  consciousness. 
We  can  go  no  furtner  upon  this  question  than  the 
light  of  evidence  will  carry  us.  And,  while  we 
both  feel  in  our  own  bosoms  and  observe  in  the 
testimony  of  those  around  us,  the  moral  deference 


126      AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

which  is  due  to  truth  and  justice — we  have  not 
yet  detected  this  to  be  the  same  with  that  deference, 
which  we  render  to  the  virtue  of  benevolence 
Or,  in  other  words,  we  do  venerate  and  regard 
these  as  virtues — while,  for  aught  we  know,  the 
utility  of  them  is  not  in  all  our  thoughts.  We 
agree  with  Dugald  Stewart  in  thinking,  that,  "  con- 
siderations of  utility  do  not  seem  to  us  the  only 
ground  of  the  approbation  we  bestow  on  this 
disposition."  He  further  observes,  that,  "ab- 
stracting from  all  regard  to  consequences,  there 
is  something  pleasing  and  amiable  in  sincerity, 
openness,  and  truth ;  something  disagreeable  and 
disgusting  in  duplicity,  equivocation,  and  falsehood. 
Dr.  Hutchison  himself,  the  great  patron  of  that 
theory  which  resolves  all  moral  qualities  into 
benevolence,  confesses  this — for  he  speaks  of  a 
sense  which  leads  us  to  approve  of  veracity,  distinct 
from  the  sense  which  approves  of  qualities  useful 
to  mankind."* 

10.  However  difficult  it  may  be,  to  resolve  the 
objective  question  which  respects  the  constitution  of 
virtue  in  itself — in  the  subjective  question,  which 
respects  the  constitution  of  the  mind,  we  cannot 
but  acknowledge  the  broad  and  palpable  distinction, 
which  the  Author  of  our  moral  frame  hath  made, 
between  justice  and  truth  on  the  one  hand,  and 
beneficence  on  the  other.  And  it  had  been  well, 
if  lawgivers  had  discriminated,  as  nature  has  done, 
between  justice  and  humanity — although  the  mis* 
chief  of  their  unfortunate  deviation  serves,  all  the 

*  Stewart's  "  Outlines  of  Moral  Philosophy,'*  Art.  Veracity. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.        127 

more  strikingly,  to  prove  the  adaptation  of  our 
moral  constitution  to  the  exigencies  of  human 
society.  The  law  of  pauperism  hath  assimilated 
beneficence  to  justice,  by  enacting  the  former,  in 
the  very  way  that  it  does  the  latter ;  and  enforcing 
what  it  has  thus  enacted  by  penalties.  Beneficence 
loses  altogether  its  proper  and  original  character — . 
when,  instead  of  moving  on  the  impulse  of  a  spon- 
taneous kindness  that  operates  from  within,  it 
moves  on  the  impulse  of  a  legal  obligation  from 
without.  Should  law  specify  the  yearly  sum  that 
must  pass  from  my  hands  to  the  destitute  around 
me — then,  it  is  not  beneficence  which  has  to  do 
with  the  matter.  What  I  have  to  surrender,  law 
hath  already  ordained  to  be  the  property  of  another ; 
and  I,  in  giving  it  up,  am  doing  an  act  of  justice 
and  not  an  act  of  liberality.  To  exercise  the 
virtue  of  beneficence,  I  must  go  beyond  the  sum 
that  is  specified  by  law;  and  thus  law,  in  her 
-attempts  to  seize  upon  beneficence,  and  to  bring 
her  under  rule,  hath  only  forced  her  to  retire  within 
a  narrower  territory,  on  which  alone  it  is  that  she 
can  put  forth  the  free  and  native  characteristics 
which  belong  to  her.  Law,  in  fact,  cannot,  with 
any  possible  ingenuity,  obtain  an  imperative  hold 
on  beneficence  at  all — for  her  very  touch  transforms 
this  virtue  into  another.  Should  law  go  forth  on 
the  enterprise  of  arresting  beneficence  upon  her 
own  domain,  and  there  laying  upon  her  its  autho- 
ritative dictates — it  would  find  that  beneficence 
had  eluded  its  pursuit ;  and  that  all  which  it  could 
possibly  do,  was  to  wrest  from  her  that  part  of  the 
domain  of  which  it  had  taken  occupation,  and  bring 


128  *  AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

it  under  the  authority  of  justice.     When  it  thought 
to  enact  for  beneficence,  it  only,  in  truth,  enacted 
a  new  division  of  property ;   and  in  so  doing,  it 
contravenes  the  possessory,  one  of  nature's  special 
affections — while,  by  its   attempts   to  force  what 
should  have  been  left  to  the  free  exercise  of  com- 
passion, it  has   done  much   to   supersede   or   to 
extinguish  another  of  these  affections.      It  hath  so 
pushed   forward   the   line   of  demarcation — as   to 
widen  the  space  which  justice  might  call  her  own, 
and  to  contract  the  space  which  beneficence  might 
call  her  own.     But  never  will  law  be  able  to  make 
a  captive  of  beneficence,  or  to  lay  personal  arrest 
upon  her.     It  might  lessen  and  limit  her  means,  or 
even  starve  her  into  utter  annihilation.     But  never 
can  it  make  a  living  captive  of  her.    It  is  altogether 
a  vain  and  hopeless  undertaking  to  legislate  on  the 
duties  of  beneficence ;  for  the  very  nature  of  this 
virtue,  is  to  do  good  freely  and  willingly  with  its 
own.     But  on  the  moment  that  law  interposes  to 
any  given  extent  with  one's  property,  to  that  extent 
it  ceases  to  be  his  own ;  and  any  good  that  is  done 
by  it  is  not  done  freely.    The  force  of  law  and  the 
freeness  of  love  cannot  amalgamate  the  one  with 
the  other.     Like  water  and  oil  they  are  immiscible. 
We  cannot  translate  beneficence  into  the  statute- 
book  of  law,  without  expunging  it  from  the  statute- 
book  of  the  heart;   and,  to  whatever  extent  we 
make  it  the  object  of  compulsion,  to  that  extent  we 
must  destroy  it. 

11.  And  in  the  proportion  that  beneficence  is 
put  to  flight,  is  gratitude  put  to  flight  along  with 
it.     The  proper  object  of  this  emotion  is  another's 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         129 

good-will.  But  I  do  not  hold  as  from  the  good- 
will of  another,  that  which  law  hath  enabled  me 
to  plea  as  my  own  right-^-nay  to  demand,  with  a 
front  of  hardy  and  resolute  assertion.  It  is  this 
which  makes  it  the  most  delicate  and  dangerous 
of  all  ground — when  law  offers  to  prescribe  rules 
for  the  exercise  of  beneficence,  or  to  lay  its  com- 
pulsory hand  on  a  virtue,  the  very  freedom  of 
which  is  indispensable  to  its  existence.  And  it 
not  only  extinguishes  the  virtue ;  but  it  puts  an 
end  to  all  those  responses  of  glad  and  grateful 
emotion,  which  its  presence  and  its  smile  and  the 
generosity  of  its  free-will  offerings  awaken  in 
society.  It  is  laying  an  arrest  on  all  the  music 
of  living  intercourse,  thus  to  forbid  those  beautiful 
and  delicious  echoes,  which  are  reflected,  on  every 
visit  of  unconstrained  mercy,  from  those  families 
that  are  gladdened  by  her  footsteps.  And  what 
is  worse,  it  is  substituting  in  their  place,  the  hoarse 
and  jarring  discords  of  the  challenge  and  the 
conflict  and  the  angry  litigation.  We  may  thus 
see,  that  there  is  a  province  in  human  affairs,  on 
which  law  should  make  no  entrance — a  certain 
department  of  human  virtue  wherein  the  moralities 
should  be  left  to  their  own  unfettered  play,  else 
they  shall  be  frozen  into  utter  apathy — a  field 
sacred  to  liberty  and  good-will  that  should  ever 
be  kept  beyond  the  reach  of  jurisprudence ;  or  on 
which,  if  she  once  obtain  a  footing,  she  will  spoil 
it  of  all  those  unbought  and  unbidden  graces  that 
natively  adorn  it.  So  that  while  to  law  we  would 
commit  the  defence  of  society  from  all  the  aggres- 
sions of  violence,  and  confide  the  strict  and  the 
f  2 


130      AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

stern  guardianship  of  the  interests  of  justice— 
we  should  tremble  for  humanity  lest  it  withered 
and  expired  under  the  grasp  of  so  rough  a  pro- 
tector; and  lest  before  a  countenance  grave  as 
that  of  a  judge,  and  grim  as  that  of  a  messenger- 
at-arms,  this  frail  but  loveliest  of  the  virtues 
should  be  turned,  as  if  by  the  head  of  Medusa, 
into  stone. 

12.  But  there  are  other  moral  ills  in  this 
unfortunate  perversion,  beside  the  extinction  of 
good-will  in  the  hearts  of  the  affluent  and  of 
gratitude  in  the  hearts  of  the  poor — though  it  be 
no  slight  mischief  to  any  community,  that  the  tie 
of  kindliness  between  these  two  orders  should 
have  been  broken ;  and  that  the  business  of  charity, 
which  when  left  spontaneous  is  so  fertile  in  all  the 
amenities  of  life,  should  be  transformed  into  a 
fierce  warfare  of  rights,  from  its  very  nature 
incapable  of  adjustment,  and,  whether  they  be 
the  encroached  upon  or  the  repelled,  subjecting 
both  parties  to  the  sense  of  a  perpetual  violence. 
But  over  and  above  this,  there  are  other  distempers, 
therewith  it  hath  smitten  the  social  economy  of 
England,  and  of  which  experience  will  supply  the 
English  observer  with  many  a  vivid  recollection. 
The  reckless  but  withal  most  natural  improvidence 
of  those  whom  the  state  has  undertaken  to  provide 
for,  seeing  that  law  hath  proclaimed  in  their  favour 
a  discharge  from  the  cares  and  the  duties  of  self- 
preservation — the  headlong  dissipation,  in  conse- 
quence— the  dissolution  of  family  ties,  for  the  same 
public  and  proclaimed  charity  which  absolves  a 
man  from  attention  to  himself  will  absolve  him  also 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         131 

from  attention  to  his  relatives — the  decay  and 
interruption  of  sympathy  in  all  the  little  vicinities 
of  town  and  country,  for  each  man  under  this 
system  of  an  assured  and  universal  provision  feels 
himself  absolved  too  from  attention  to  his  neigh- 
bours— These  distempers  both  social  and  economic 
have  a  common  origin;  and  the  excess  of  them 
above  what  taketh  place  in  a  natural  state  of  things, 
may  all  be  traced  to  the  unfortunate  aberration, 
which,  in  this  instance,  the  constitution  of  human  law 
hath  made  from  the  constitution  of  human  nature. 
13.  In  our  attempts  to  trace  the  rise  of  the 
possessory  affection  and  of  a  sense  of  property, 
we  have  not  been  able  to  discover  any  foundation 
in  nature,  for  a  sentiment  that  we  often  hear 
impetuously  urged  by  the  advocates  of  the  system 
of  pauperism — that  every  man  has  a  right  to  the 
means  of  subsistence.  Nature  does  not  connect 
this  right  with  existence ;  but  with  continued  occu- 
pation, and  with  another  principle  to  which  it  also 
gives  the  sanction  of  its  voice — that,  each  man  is 
legitimate  owner  of  the  fruits  of  his  own  industry. 
These  are  the  principles  on  which  nature  hath 
drawn  her  landmarks  over  every  territory  that  is 
peopled  and  cultivated  by  human  beings.  And  the 
actual  distribution  of  property  is  the  fruit,  partly  of 
man's  own  direct  aim  and  acquisition,  and  partly 
of  circumstances  over  which  he  had  no  control. 
The  right  of  man  to  the  means  of  existence  on 
the  sole  ground  that  he  exists  has  been  loudly  and 
vehemently  asserted ;  yet  is  a  factitious  sentiment 
notwithstanding — tending  to  efface  the  distinctness 
of   nature's    landmarks,   and    to    traverse   those 


132       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

arrangements,  by  which  she  hath  provided  far 
better  for  the  peace  and  comfort  of  society,  nay  for 
the  more  sure  and  liberal  support  of  all  its  mem- 
bers. It  is  true  that  nature,  in  fixing  the  principles 
on  which  man  has  a  right  to  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
to  the  materials  of  his  subsistence,  has  left  out 
certain  individuals  of  the  human  family— some 
outcast  stragglers,  who,  on  neither  of  nature's 
principles,  will  be  found  possessed  of  any  right,  or 
of  any  property.  It  is  for  their  sake  that  human 
law  hath  interposed,  in  some  countries  of  the 
world;  and,  by  creating  or  ordaining  a  right  for 
them,  has  endeavoured  to  make  good  the  deficiency 
of  nature.  But  if  justice  alone  could  have  ensured 
a  right  distribution  for  the  supply  of  want,  and  if  it 
must  be  through  the  medium  of  a  right  that  the  des- 
titute shall  obtain  their  maintenance — then,  would 
there  have  been  no  need  for  another  principle, 
which  stands  out  most  noticeably  in  our  nature ; 
and  compassion  would  have  been  a  superfluous 
part  of  the  human  constitution.  It  is  by  means 
of  this  additional  principle  that  nature  provides  for 
the  unprovided — not  by  unsettling  the  limits  which 
her  previous  education  had  established  in  all  minds 
— not  by  the  extension  of  a  right  to  every  man ; 
but  by  establishing  in  behalf  of  those  some  men, 
whom  accident  or  the  necessity  of  circumstances 
or  even  their  own  misconduct  had  left  without  a 
right,  a  compassionate  interest  in  the  bosom  of 
their  fellows.  They  have  no  advocate  to  plead  for 
them  at  the  bar  of  justice;  and  therefore  nature 
hath  furnished  them  with  a  gentler  and  more  per- 
suasive advocate,  who  might  solicit  for  them  at  the 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         133 

bar  of  mercy ;  and,  for  their  express  benefit,  hath 
given  to  most  men  an  ear  for  pity,  to  many  a  hand 
open  as  day  for  melting  charity.  But  it  is  not  to 
any  rare,  or  romantic  generosity,  that  she  hath 
confided  the  relief  of  their  wants.  She  hath  made 
compassion  one  of  the  strongest,  and,  in  spite  of 
all  the  depravations  to  which  humanity  is  exposed, 
one  of  the  steadiest  of  our  universal  instincts.  It 
were  an  intolerable  spectacle  even  to  the  inmates 
of  a  felon's  cell,  did  they  behold  one  of  their  fellows 
in  the  agonies  of  hunger ;  and  rather  than  endure 
it,  would  they  share  their  own  scanty  meal  with 
them.*  It  were  still  more  intolerable  to  the 
householders  of  any  neighbourhood-— insomuch  that, 
where  law  had  not  attempted  to  supersede  nature, 
every  instance  of  distress  or  destitution  would, 
whether  in  town  or  country,  give  rise  to  an  internal 
operation  of  charity  throughout  every  little  vicinity 
of  the  land.  The  mischief  which  law  hath  done, 
by  trying  to  mend  the  better  mechanism  which 
nature  had  instituted,  is  itself  a  most  impressive 
testimony  to  the  wisdom  of  nature.  The  perfection 
of  her  arrangements,  is  never  more  strikingly  exhi- 


*  The  certainty  of  this  operation  is  beautifully  exemplified  in  a 
passage  of  Mr.  Buxton's  interesting  book  on  prisons — from  which 
it  appears  that  there  is  no  allowance  of  food  to  the  debtors,  and  a 
very  inferior  allowance  of  food  to  the  criminals,  who  are  confined 
in  the  gaol  at  Bristol.  The  former  live  on  their  own  means  or 
the  casual  charity  of  the  benevolent.  Instances  have  occurred 
when  both  of  these  resources  failed  them — and  starvation  would 
have  ensued,  had  not  the  criminals,  rather  than  endure  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  such  a  suffering,  shared  their  own  scanty  pittance 
along  with  them — thus  affording  an  argumentum  a  fortiore 
for  a  like  strength  of  compassion  throughout  the  land — seeing 
that  it  had  survived  the  depraving  process  which,  leads  to  the 
malefactor's  cell. 


134       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

bited,  than  by  those  evils  which  the  disturbance  of 
them  brings  upon  society — as  when  her  law  in  the 
heart  has  been  overborne  by  England's  wretched 
law  of  pauperism ;  and  this  violation  of  the  natural 
order  has  been  followed  up,  in  consequence,  by  a 
tenfold  increase  both  of  poverty  and  crime. 

14.  It  is  interesting  to  pursue  the  outgoings  of 
such  a  system ;  and  to  ascertain  whether  nature 
hath  vindicated  her  wisdom,  by  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  a  departure  from  her  guidance  on  the 
part  of  man — for  if  so,  it  will  supply  another  proof, 
or  furnish  us  with  another  sight  of  the  exquisite 
adaptation  which  she  hath  established  between  the 
moral  and  the  physical,  or  between  the  two  worlds 
of  mind  and  matter.  Certain,  then,  of  the  parishes 
of  England  have  afforded  a  very  near  exemplifica- 
tion of  the  ultimate  state  to  which  one  and  all  of 
them  are  tending — a  state  which  is  consummated, 
when  the  poor  rates  form  so  large  a  deduction  from 
the  rents  of  the  land,  that  it  shall  at  length  cease 
to  be  an  object  to  keep  them  in  cultivation.*  It 
is  thus  that  some  tracts  of  country  are  on  the  eve 
of  being  actually  vacated  by  their  proprietors ;  and 
as  their  place  of  superintendence  cannot  be  vacated 


*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  report  of  a  select  com- 
mittee on  the  poor  law  printed  in  1817.  "The  consequences 
which  are  likely  to  result  from  this  state  of  things,  are  clearly  set 
forth  in  the  petition  from  the  parish  of  Wombridge  in  Salop,  which 
is  fast  approaching  to  this  state.  The  petitioners  state  '  that  the 
annual  value  of  lands,  mines  and  houses  in  this  parish,  is  not 
sufficient  to  maintain  the  numerous  and  increasing  poor,  even  if 
the  same  were  set  free  of  rent ;  and  that  these  circumstances  will 
inevitably  compel  the  occupiers  of  lands  and  mines  to  relinquish 
them  ;  and  the  poor  will  be  without  relief,  or  any  known  mode  of 
obtaining  it,  unless  some  assistance  be  speedily  afforded  to  them.' 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         135 

by  others,  who  have  no  right  of  superintendence — 
the  result  might  be,  that  whole  estates  shall  be  as 
effectually  lost  to  the  wealth  and  resources  of  the 
country,  as  if  buried  by  an  earthquake  under  water, 
or,  as  if  some  blight  of  nature  had  gone  over  them 
and  bereft  them  of  their  powers  of  vegetation. 
Now  we  know  not,  if  the  whole  history  of  the 
world  furnishes  a  more  striking  demonstration  than 
this,  of  the  mischief  that  may  be  done,  by  attempt- 
ing to  carry  into  practice  a  theoretical  speculation, 
which,  under  the  guise  and  even  with  the  real 
purpose  of  benevolence,  has  for  its  plausible  object,  to 
equalize  among  the  children  of  one  common  human- 
ity, the  blessings  and  the  fruits  of  one  common 
inheritance.  The  truth  is  that  we  have  not  been 
conducted  to  the  present  state  of  our  rights  and 
arrangements  respecting  property,  by  any  artificial 
process  of  legislation  at  all.  The  state  of  property 
in  which  we  find  ourselves  actually  landed,  is  the 
result  of  a  natural  process,  under  which,  all  that  a 
man  earns  by  his  industry  is  acknowledged  to  be 
his  own — or,  when  the  original  mode  of  acquisition 
is  lost  sight  of,  all  that  a  man  retains  by  long  and 
undisturbed  possession  is  felt  and  acknowledged  to 
be  his  own  also.  Legislation  ought  to  do  no  more 
than  barely  recognise  these  principles,  and  defend 
its  subjects  against  the  violation  of  them.  And 
when  it  attempts  more  than  this — when  it  offers  to 


And  your  committee  apprehend,  from  the  petition  before  them, 
that  this  is  one  of  many  parishes  that  are*  fast  approaching  to  a 
state  of  dereliction." 

The  inquiries  of  the  present  Poor  law  Commission  have  led  to  a 
still  more  aggravated  and  confirmed  view  of  the  evils  of  the  system. 


136       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

tamper  with  the  great  arrangements  of  nature,  by- 
placing  the  rights  and  the  securities  of  property  on 
a  footing  different  from  that  of  nature — when,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  English  poor-laws,  it  does  so,  under 
the  pretence  and  doubtless  too  with  the  honest 
design  of  establishing  between  the  rich  and  the  poor 
a  nearer  equality  of  enjoyment;  we  know  not  in  what 
way  violated  nature  could  have  inflicted  on  the  enter- 
prise a  more  signal  and  instructive  chastisement, 
than  when  the  whole  territory  of  this  plausible  but 
presumptuous  experiment  is  made  to  droop  and  to 
wither  under  it  as  if  struck  by  a  judgment  from 
heaven — till  at  length  that  earth  out  of  which  the 
rich  draw  all  their  wealth  and  the  poor  all  their 
subsistence,  refuses  to  nourish  the  children  who  have 
abandoned  her;  and  both  parties  are  involved  in  the 
wreck  of  one  common  and  overwhelming  visitation. 
15.  But  we  read  the  same  lesson  in  all  the  laws 
and  movements  of  political  economy.  The  superior 
wisdom  of  nature  is  demonstrated  in  the  mischief 
which  is  done  by  any  aberration  therefrom — when 
her  processes  are  disturbed  or  intermeddled  with 
by  the  wisdom  of  man.  The  philosophy  of  free 
trade  is  grounded  on  the  principle,  that  society  is 
most  enriched  or  best  served,  when  commerce  is 
left  to  its  own  spontaneous  evolutions;  and  is 
neither  fostered  by  the  artificial  encouragements, 
nor  fettered  by  the  artificial  restraints  of  human 
policy.  The  greatest  economic  good  is  rendered 
to  the  community,  by  each  man  being  left  to  consult 
and  to  labour  for  his  own  particular  good — or,  in 
other  words,  a  more  prosperous  result  is  obtained 
by  the  spontaneous  play  and  busy  competition  of 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.         137 

many  thousand  wills,  each  bent  on  the  prosecution 
of  its  own  selfishness,  than  by  the  anxious  superin- 
tendence of  a  government,  vainly  attempting  to 
medicate  the  fancied  imperfections  of  nature,  or  to 
improve  on  the  arrangements  of  her  previous  and 
better  mechanism.  It  is  when  each  man  is  left  to 
seek,  with  concentrated  and  exclusive  aim,  his  own 
individual  benefit — it  is  then,  that  markets  are  best 
supplied;  that  commodities  are  furnished  for  general 
use,  of  best  quality,  and  in  greatest  cheapness  and 
abundance;  that  the  comforts  of  life  are  most 
multiplied;  and  the  most  free  and  rapid  augmentation 
takes  place  in  the  riches  and  resources  of  the  com- 
monwealth. Such  a  result,  which  at  the  same 
time  not  a  single  agent  in  this  vast  and  complicated 
system  of  trade  contemplates  or  cares  for — each 
caring  only  for  himself — strongly  bespeaks  a  higher 
agent,  by  whose  transcendental  wisdom  it  is,  that 
all  is  made  to  conspire  so  harmoniously  and  to 
terminate  so  beneficially.  We  are  apt  to  recognise 
no  higher  wisdom  than  that  of  man,  in  those  mighty 
concerts  of  human  agency — a  battle,  or  a  revolution, 
or  the  accomplishment  of  some  prosperous  and 
pacific  scheme  of  universal  education ;  where  each 
who  shares  in  the  undertaking  is  aware  of  its  object, 
or  acts  in  obedience  to  some  master-mind  who  may 
have  devised  and  who  actuates  the  whole.  But  it 
is  widely  different,  when,  as  in  political  economy, 
some  great  and  beneficent  end  both  unlooked  and 
unlaboured  for,  is  the  result,  not  of  any  concert  or 
general  purpose  among  the  thousands  who  are 
engaged  in  it — but  is  the  compound  effect,  neverthe- 
less, of  each  looking  severally,  and  in  the  strenuous 


138         AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

pursuit  of  individual  advantage,  to  some  distinct 
object  of  his  own.  When  we  behold  the  working 
of  a  complex  inanimate  machine,  and  the  usefulness 
of  its  products — we  infer,  from  the  unconsciousness 
of  all  its  parts,  that  there  must  have  been  a  plan- 
ning and  a  presiding  wisdom  in  the  construction  oi 
it.  The  conclusion  is  not  the  less  obvious,  wt 
think  it  emphatically  more  so,  when,  instead  02 
this,  we  behold  in  one  of  the  animate  machines  o.' 
human  society,  the  busy  world  of  trade,  a  beneficent 
result,  an  optimism  of  public  and  economical  advan- 
tage, wrought  out  by  the  free  movements  of  a  vast 
multitude  of  men,  not  one  of  whom  had  the  advan- 
tage of  the  public  in  all  his  thoughts.  When  good 
is  effected  by  a  combination  of  unconscious  agents 
incapable  of  all  aim,  we  ascribe  the  combination  to 
an  intellect  that  devised  and  gave  it  birth.  When 
good  is  effected  by  a  combination  of  conscious 
agents  capable  of  aim,  but  that  an  aim  wholly 
different  with  each  from  the  compound  and  general 
result  of  their  united  operations — this  bespeaks  a 
higher  will  and  a  higher  wisdom  than  any  by  which 
the  individuals,  taken  separately,  are  actuated. 
When  we  look  at  each  striving  to  better  his  own 
condition,  we  see  nothing  in  this  but  the  selfishness 
of  man.  When  we  look  at  the  effect  of  this 
universal  principle,  in  cheapening  and  multiplying 
to  the  uttermost  all  the  articles  of  human  enjoyment, 
and  establishing  a  thousand  reciprocities  of  mutual 
interest  in  the  world — we  see  in  this  the  benevolence 
and  comprehensive  wisdom  of  God.* 

•  See  further  upon  this  subject,  Observations  by  Dr.  Whately 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  in  his  recent  volume  on  Political  Economy. 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.        139 

16.  When  any  given  object  is  anxiously  cared 
for  by  a  legislature,  and  all  its  wisdom  is  put  forth 
in  devising  measures  for  securing  or  extending  it 
— it  forms  a  pleasing  discovery  to  find,  that  what 
may  have  hitherto  been  the  laborious  aim  and 
effort  of  human  policy,  has  already  been  provided 
for,  with  all  perfection  and  entireness  in  the 
spontaneous  workings  of  human  nature ;  and  that 
therefore,  in  this  instance,  the  wisdom  of  the  state 
has  been  anticipated  by  a  higher  wisdom — or  the 
wisdom  which  presides  over  the  ordinations  of  a 
human  government,  has  been  anticipated  by  the 
wisdom  which  ordained  the  laws  of  the  human 
constitution.  Of  this  there  are  manifold  examples 
in  political  economy — as  in  the  object  of  population, 
for  the  keeping  up  and  increase  of  which,  there  was 
at  one  time  a  misplaced  anxiety  on  the  part  of 
rulers;  and  the  object  of  capital  for  the  preservation 
and  growth  of  which  there  is  a  like  misplaced 
anxiety,  and  for  the  decay  and  disappearance  of 
which  there  is  an  equally  misplaced  alarm.  Both, 
in  fact,  are  what  may  be  termed  self-regulating 
interests — or,  in  other  words,  interests  which  result 
with  so  much  certainty  from  the  checks  and  the 
principles  that  nature  hath  already  instituted,  as 
to  supersede  all  public  or  patriotic  regulation  in 
regard  to  either  of  them.  This  has  now  been  loug 
understood  on  the  subject  of  population;  but  it 
holds  equally  true  on  the  subject  of  capital.  There 
is,  on  the  one  hand,  throughout  society,  enough  of 
the  appetite  for  enjoyment,  to  secure  us  against  its 
needless  excess  ;  and,  on  the  other,  enough  of  the 
appetite  for  gain,  to  secure  us  against  its  hurtful 


140       AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

deficiency.  And,  by  a  law  of  oscillation  as  beauti- 
ful as  that  which  obtains  in  the  planetary  system, 
and  by  which,  amid  all  disturbances  and  errors,  it 
is  upheld  in  its  mean  state  indestructible  and  invio- 
late— does  capital,  in  like  manner,  constantly  tend 
to  a  condition  of  optimism,  and  is  never  far  from 
it,  amid  all  the  variations,  whether  of  defect,  or 
redundancy,  to  which  it  is  exposed.  When  in 
defect,  by  the  operation  of  high  prices,  it  almost 
instantly  recovers  itself — when  in  excess,  it,  by  the 
operation  of  low  profits,  or  rather  of  losing  specu- 
lations, almost  instantly  collapses  into  a  right 
mediocrity.  In  the  first  case,  the  inducement  is 
to  trade  rather  than  to  spend;  and  there  is  a  speedy 
accumulation  of  capital.  In  the  second  case,  the 
mducement  is  to  spend  rather  than  to  trade :  and 
there  is  a  speedy  reduction  of  capital.  It  is  thus 
that  capital  ever  suits  itself,  in  the  way  that  is  best 
possible,  to  the  circumstances  of  the  country — so 
as  to  leave  uncalled  for,  any  economic  regulation 
by  the  wisdom  of  man ;  and  that  precisely  because 
of  a  previous  moral  and  mental  regulation  by  the 
wisdom  of  God. 

17.  But  if  any  thing  can  demonstrate  the  hand 
of  a  righteous  Deity  in  the  nature  and  workings 
of  what  may  well  be  termed  a  mechanism,  the  very 
peculiar  mechanism  of  trade;  it  is  the  healthful 
impulse  given  to  all  its  movements,  wherever  there 
is  a  reigning  principle  of  sobriety  and  virtue  in  the 
land — so  as  to  ensure  an  inseparable  connexion 
between  the  moral  worth  and  the  economic  comfort 
of  a  people.  Of  this  we  should  meet  with  innumer- 
able verifications  in  political  economy — did  we  make 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  141 

a  study  of  the  science,  with  the  express  design  of 
fixing  and  ascertaining  them.  There  is  one  very 
beautiful  instance  in  the  effect,  which  the  frugality 
and  foresight  of  workmen  would  have,  to  con- 
trol and  equalize  the  fluctuations  of  commerce — 
acting  with  the  power  of  a  fly  in  mechanics  ;  and 
so  as  to  save,  or  at  least  indefinitely  to  shorten, 
those  dreary  intervals  of  suspended  work  or  miser- 
able wages,  which  now  occur  so  often,  and  with 
almost  periodic  regularity  in  the  trading  world. 
What  constitutes  a  sore  aggravation  to  the  wretch- 
edness of  such  a  season,  is  the  necessity  of  over- 
working— so  as,  if  possible,  to  compensate  by  the 
amount  of  labour  for  the  deficiency  of  its  remunera- 
tion ;  and  yet  the  inverse  effect  of  this  in  augment- 
ing and  perpetuating  that  glut,  or  overproduction, 
which  is  the  real  origin  of  this  whole  calamity.  It 
would  not  happen  in  the  hands  of  a  people  elevated 
and  exempted  above  the  urgencies  of  immediate 
want ;  and  nothing  will  so  elevate  and  exempt  them, 
but  their  own  accumulated  wealth — the  produce 
of  a  resolute  economy  and  good  management  in 
prosperous  times.  Would  they  only  save  during 
high  wages,  what  they  might  spend  during  low 
wages — so  as  when  the  depression  comes,  to  slacken, 
instead  of  adding  to  their  work,  or  even  cease  from 
it  altogether — could  they  only  afford  to  live,  through 
the  months  of  such  a  visitation,  on  their  well- 
husbanded  means,  the  commodities  of  the  over- 
laden market  would  soon  clear  away  ;  when,  with 
the  return  of  a  brisk  demand  on  empty  warehouses, 
a  few  weeks  instead  of  months  would  restore  them 
to  importance  and  prosperity  in  the  commonwealth. 


142        AFFECTIONS  WHICH  CONDUCE  TO  THE 

This  is  but  a  single  specimen  from  many  others  of 
that  enlargement  which  awaits  the  labouring  classes, 
after  that  by  their  own  intelligence  and  virtue, 
they  have  won  their  way  to  it.  With  but  wisdom 
and  goodness  among  the  common  people,  the  whole 
of  this  economic  machinery  would  work  most  benefi- 
cently for  them — a  moral  ordination,  containing  in 
it  most  direct  evidence  for  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness of  that  Being  by  whose  hands  it  is  that  the 
machinery  has  been  framed  and  constituted ;  and 
who,  the  Preserver  and  Governor,  as  well  as  the 
Creator  of  His  works,  sits  with  presiding  authority 
over  all  its  evolutions. 

18.  But  this  is  only  one  specimen  out  of  the 

many — the  particular  instance  of  a  quality  that  is 

universal,  and  which  may  be  detected  in  almost  all 

the  phenomena  and  principles  of  the  science ;  for 

throughout,  political   economy  is  but  one    grand 

exemplification  of  the  alliance,    which   a  God  of 

righteousness  hath  established,  between  prudence 

and  moral  principle  on  the  one  hand,  and  physical 

comfort  on  the  other.      However  obnoxious    the 

modern  doctrine  of  population,  as  expounded  by 

Mr.  Malthus,  may  have  been,  and  still  is,  to  weak 

and  limited  sentimentalists,  it  is  the  truth  which  of 

all  others  sheds  the  greatest  brightness  over  the 

earthly  prospects  of  humanity — and  this  in  spite  of 

the  hideous,  the  yet  sustained  outcry  which  has 

risen  against  it.      This  is  a  pure  case  of  adaptation, 

between  the  external  nature  of  the  world  in  which 

we  live,  and  the  moral  nature  of  man,  its  chief 

occupier.      There  is  a  demonstrable  inadequacy  in 

all   the  material  resources  which  the  globe   can 


ECONOMIC  WELL-BEING  OF  SOCIETY.  143 

iurnish,  for  the  increasing  wants  of  a  recklessly 
increasing  species.  But  over  and  against  this, 
man  is  gifted  with  a  moral  and  a  mental  power  by 
which  the  inadequacy  might  be  fully  countervailed  5 
and  the  species,  in  virtue  of  their  restrained  and 
regulated  numbers,  be  upholden  on  the  face  of  our 
world,  in  circumstances  of  large  and  stable  suffi- 
ciency, even  to  the  most  distant  ages.  The  first 
origin  of  this  blissful  consummation  is  in  the  virtue  of 
the  people  ;  but  carried  into  sure  and  lasting  effect 
by  the  laws  of  political  economy,  through  the 
indissoluble  connexion  which  obtains  between  the 
wages  and  the  supply  of  labour — so  that  in  every 
given  state  of  commerce  and  civilization,  the  amount 
of  the  produce  of  industry  and  of  the  produce  of 
the  soil,  which  shall  fall  to  the  share  of  the  work- 
men, is  virtually  at  the  determination  of  the  work- 
men themselves,  who,  by  dint  of  resolute  prudence 
and  resolute  principle  together,  may  rise  to  an 
indefinitely  higher  status  than  they  now  occupy,  of 
comfort  and  independence  in  the  commonwealth. 
This  opens  up  a  cheering  prospect  to  the  lovers  of 
our  race ;  and  not  the  less  so,  that  it  is  seen  through 
the  medium  of  popular  intelligence  and  virtue — 
the  only  medium  through  which  it  can  ever  be 
realized.  And  it  sheds  a  revelation,  not  only  on 
the  hopeful  destinies  of  man,  but  on  the  character 
of  God — in  having  instituted  this  payable  alliance 
between  the  moral  and  the  physical  and  so  assort- 
ed the  economy  of  outward  natmv  ,0  the  economy 
of  human  principles  and  passion  The  lights  of 
modern  science  have  made  us  apprehend  more 
clearly,  by  what  steps  the  condition  and  the  charac- 


144    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

ter  of  the  common  people  rise  and  fall  with  each 
other — insomuch,  that,  while  on  the  one  hand  their 
general  destitution  is  the  inevitable  result  of  their 
general  worthlessness,  they,  on  the  other,  by  dint 
of  wisdom  and  moral  strength,  can  augment  indefi- 
nitely, not  the  produce  of  the  earth,  nor  the  pro- 
duce of  human  industry,  but  that  proportion  of  both 
which  falls  to  their  own  share.  Their  economic  is 
sure  to  follow  by  successive  advances  in  the  career 
of  their  moral  elevation ;  nor  do  we  hold  it  impos- 
sible, or  even  unlikely — that  gaining,  every  gene- 
ration, on  the  distance  which  now  separates  them 
from  the  upper  classes  of  society,  they  shall,  in 
respect  both  of  decent  sufficiency  and  dignified 
leisure,  make  perpetual  approximations  to  the 
fellowships  and  the  enjoyments  of  cultivated  life. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Adaptations  of  the  Material  World  to  the  Moral 
and  Intellectual  Constitution  of  Man. 

1.  If  by  External  Nature  be  meant  all  that  is 
external  to  mind,  then  the  proper  subject  of  the 
argument,  in  this  Fourth  Book,  should  be  the  adap- 
tation of  the  Material  to  the  Mental  World.  But 
if  by  External  Nature  be  meant  all  that  is  external 
to  one  individual  mind,  then  is  the  subject  very 
greatly  extended ;  for,  beside  the  reciprocal  influ- 
ence between  that  individual  mind  and  all  sensible 
and   material    things,    we    should    consider    the 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  145 

reciprocal  influence  between  it  and  all  other  minds. 
By  this  contraction  of  the  idea  from  the  mental 
world  to  but  one  individual  member  of  it;  and 
this  proportional  extension  in  the  idea  of  external 
nature  from  the  material  creation  to  the  whole  of 
that  living,  as  well  as  inanimate  creation,  by  which 
any  single  man  is  surrounded — we  are  introduced 
not  merely  to  the  action  and  re-action  which  obtain 
between  mind  and  matter ;  but,  which  is  far  more 
prolific  of  evidence  for  a  Deity,  to  the  action  and 
re-action  which  obtain  between  mind  and  mind. 
It  is  thus  that  we  have  proceeded  hitherto  in  the 
argument  of  this  work,  and  have  consequently 
found  access  to  a  much  larger  territory  which 
should  otherwise  have  been  left  unexplored — and 
so  have  had  the  opportunity  of  tracing  the  marks 
of  a  divine  intelligence  in  the  mechanism  of  human 
society,  and  in  the  framework  of  the  social  and 
economical  systems  to  which  men  are  conducted, 
when  they  adhere  to  that  light,  and  follow  the 
impulse  of  those  affections  which  God  has  bestowed 
on  them, 

2.  But  over  and  above  these  adaptations  of  the 
external  mental  world,  we  have  also  adaptations  of 
the  external  material  world  to  the  Moral  and 
Intellectual  Constitution  of  Man;  and  these  will 
chiefly  engross  our  attention  in  the  present  chapter 
— though,  if  only  to  repair  an  omission  on  the 
subject  of  the  relative  sympathies  between  man 
and  man,  we  might  previously  advert  to  that  law 
of  affection  by  which  its  intensity  or  strength  is 
proportioned  to  the  helplessness  of  its  object. 
It  takes  a  direction  downwards;  descending,  for 

vol.  ii.  a 


146     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

example,  with  much  greater  force  from  parents  to 
children,  than  ascending  from  children  to  parents 
back  again — save  when  they  lapse  again  into 
second  infancy,  and  the  duteous  devoted  attendance 
by  the  helpful  daughters  of  a  family,  throughout 
the  protracted  ailments  and  infirmity  of  their 
declining  years,  instead  of  an  exception,  is  in  truth 
a  confirmation  of  the  law — as  much  so,  as  the 
stronger  attraction  of  a  mother's  heart  towards  the 
youngest  of  the  family ;  or,  more  impressive  still, 
her  more  special  and  concentrated  regard  towards 
her  sickly  or  decrepit  or  even  idiot  boy.  It  is 
impossible  not  to  recognise  in  this  beautiful  deter- 
mination of  nature,  the  benevolence  of  nature's 
God. 

3.  We  hasten  to  instances  of  another  kind, 
which  we  all  the  more  gladly  seize  upon,  as  being 
cases  of  purest  and  strictest  adaptation,  not  of  the 
external  mental,  but  of  the  external  material  world, 
to  the  Moral  Constitution  of  Man. 

4.  The  power  of  speech  is  precisely  such  an 
adaptation.  Whether  we  regard  the  organs  of 
utterance  and  hearing  in  man,  or  the  aerial  medium 
by  which  sounds  are  conveyed — do  we  behold  a 
pure  subserviency  of  the  material  to  the  mental 
system  of  our  world.  It  is  true  that  the  great 
object  subserved  by  it,  is  the  action  and  reaction 
between  mind  and  mind — nor  can  we  estimate 
this  object  too  highly,  when  we  think  of  the  mighty 
influence  of  language,  both  on  the  moral  and 
intellectual  condition  of  our  species.  Still  it  is  by 
moans  of  an  elaborate  material  construction  that 
this  pathway  has  been  formed,  from  one  heart  and 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  147 

from  one  understanding  to  another.  And  therefore 
it  is,  that  the  faculty  of  communication  by  words, 
with  all  the  power  and  flexibility  which  belong  to 
it,  by  which  the  countless  benefits  of  human  inter- 
course are  secured,  and  all  the  stores  of  sentiment 
and  thought  are  turned  into  a  common  property 
for  the  good  of  mankind,  may  well  be  ranked 
among  the  highest  of  the  examples  that  we  are 
now  in  quest  of — it  being  indeed  as  illustrious  an 
adaptation  as  can  be  named  of  External  and  Material 
Nature  to  the  Moral  and  Intellectual  Constitution 
of  Man.  Of  the  converse  of  disembodied  spirits 
we  know  nothing.  But  to  man  cased  in  material- 
ism, certain  material  passages  or  ducts  of  convey- 
ance, for  the  interchange  of  thought  and  feeling 
between  one  mind  and  another  seem  indispensable. 
The  exquisite  provision  which  has  been  made  for 
these,  both  in  the  powers  of  articulation  and 
hearing,  as  also  in  that  intermediate  element,  by 
the  pulsations  of  which,  ideas  are  borne  forward,  as 
on  so  many  winged  messengers  from  one  intellect 
to  another — bespeaks,  and  perhaps  more  impres- 
sively than  any  other  phenomena  in  nature,  the 
contrivance  of  a  supreme  artificer,  the  device  and 
finger  of  a  Deity.* 

5.    But  articulate   and  arbitrary  sound  is   not 

*  It  will  at  once  be  seen  that  the  same  observations  may  be 
extended  to  written  language,  and  to  the  fitness  of  those  mate- 
rials which  subserve  through  its  means,  the  wide  and  rapid 
communication  of  human  thoughts.  We  in  truth  could  have 
multiplied  indefinitely  such  instances  of  adaptation  as  we  are  now 
giving — but  we  judged  it  better  to  have  confined  ourselves  to 
matters  of  a  more  rudimental  and  general  character — leaving  the 
manifold  detail  and  fuller  developments  of  the  argument  to  future 
labourers  in  the  field. 


148  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

the  only  vehicle,  either  of  meaning  or  sentiment* 
There  is  a  natural  as  well  as  artificial  language, 
consisting  chiefly  of  expressive  tones— though 
greatly  reinforced  both  by  expressive  looks  and 
expressive  gestures.  The  voice,  by  its  intona- 
tions alone,  is  a  powerful  instrument  for  the  pro- 
pagation of  sympathy  between  man  and  man ;  and 
there  is  similarity  enough  between  us  and  the 
inferior  animals,  in  the  natural  signs  of  various  of 
the  emotions,  as  anger  and  fear  and  grief  and 
cheerfulness,  for  the  sympathy  being  extended 
beyond  the  limits  of  our  own  species,  and  over  a 
great  part  of  the  sentient  creation.  We  learn  by 
experience  and  association  the  significancy  of  the 
merely  vocal  apart  from  vocables  ;  for  almost  eacn 
anade  of  meaning,  at  least  each  distinct  sensibility, 
nas  its  own  appropriate  intonation — so  that,  with- 
out catching  one  syllable  of  the  utterance,  we  can, 
from  its  melody  alone,  often  tell  what  are  the  work- 
ings of  the  heart,  and  even  what  are  the  workings 
of  the  intellect.  It  is  thus  that  music,  even  though 
altogether  apart  from  words,  is  so  powerfully  fitted, 
both  to  represent  and  to  awaken  the  mental  pro- 
cesses— insomuch  that,  without  the  aid  of  spoken 
characters,  many  a  story  of  deepest  interest  is 
most  impressively  told,  many  a  noble  or  tender 
sentiment  is  most  emphatically  conveyed  by  it.  It 
says  much  for  the  native  and  original  predominance 
of  virtue — it  may  be  deemed  another  assertion  of 
its  designed  pre-eminence  in  the  world,  that  our 
best  and  highest  music  is  that  which  is  charged 
with  loftiest  principle,  whether  it  breathes  in 
orisons  of  sacredness,  or  is  employed  to  kindle  the 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  149 

purposes  and  to  animate  the  struggles  of  resolved 
patriotism ;  and  that  never  does  it  fall  with  more 
exquisite  cadence  on  the  ear  of  the  delighted 
listener,  than  when  attuned  to  the  home  sympathies 
of  nature,  it  tells  in  accents  of  love  or  pity,  of  its 
woes  and  its  wishes  for  all  humanity.  The  power 
and  expressiveness  of  music  may  well  be  regarded 
as  a  most  beauteous  adaptation  of  External  and 
Material  Nature  to  the  Moral  Constitution  of 
Man — for  what  can  be  more  adapted  to  his  moral 
constitution,  than  that  which  is  so  helpful  as  music 
eminently  is,  to  his  moral  culture  ?  Its  sweetest 
sounds  are  those  of  kind  affection.  Its  sublimest 
sounds  are  those  most  expressive  of  moral  heroism, 
or  most  fitted  to  solemnize  the  devotions  of  the 
heart,  and  prompt  the  aspirations  and  resolves  of 
exalted  piety. 

6.  A  philosophy  of  taste  has  been  founded  on 
this  contemplation;  and  some  have  contended  that 
both  the  beauty  and  the  sublimity  of  sounds  are 
derived  from  their  association  with  moral  qualities 
alone.  Without  affirming  that  association  is  the 
only,  or  the  universal  cause,  it  must  at  least  be 
admitted  to  have  a  very  extensive  influence  over 
this  class  of  our  emotions.  If  each  of  the  mental 
affections  have  its  own  appropriate  intonation; 
and  there  be  the  same  or  similar  intonations  given 
forth,  either  by  the  inanimate  creation  or  by  the 
creatures  having  life  which  are  inferior  to  man — 
then,  frequent  and  familiar  on  every  side  of  him, 
must  be  many  of  those  sounds  by  which  human 
passions  are  suggested,  and  the  memory  of  things 


150  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WOULD 

awakened  which  are  fitted  to  affect  and  interest 
the  heart.  And  thus  it  is,  that,  to  the  ear  of  a 
poet,  all  nature  is  vocal  with  sentiment;  and  he 
can  fancy  a  genius  or  residing  spirit,  in  the  ocean, 
or  in  the  tempest,  or  in  the  rushing  waterfall,  or 
in  the  stream  whose  softer  murmurs  would  lull 
him  to  repose — or  in  the  mighty  forest,  when  he 
hears  the  general  sigh  emitted  by  its  innumerable 
leaves  as  they  rustle  in  the  wind,  and  from  whose 
fitful  changes  he  seems  to  catch  the  import  of 
some  deep  and  mysterious  soliloquy.  But  the 
imagination  will  be  still  more  readily  excited  by 
the  notes  and  the  cries  of  animals,  as  when  the 
peopled  grove  awakens  to  harmony  ;  or  when  it  is 
figured,  that,  amid  the  amplitudes  of  savage  and 
solitary  nature,  the  lioness  robbed  of  her  whelps, 
calls  forth  the  echoes  of  the  wilderness — making 
it  to  ring  with  the  proclamation  of  her  wrongs. 
But,  without  conceiving  any  such  rare  or  extreme 
sensibility  as  this,  there  is  a  common,  an  every-day 
enjoyment  which  all  have  in  the  sounds  of  nature ; 
and,  as  far  as  sympathy  with  human  emotions  is 
awakened  by  them,  and  this  forms  an  ingredient 
of  the  pleasure,  it  affords  another  fine  example,  of 
an  adaptation  in  the  external  world  to  the  mental 
constitution  of  its  occupiers. 

7.  But  the  same  philosophy  has  been  extended 
to  sights  as  well  as  sounds.  The  interchange  of 
mind  with  mind  is  not  restricted  to  language. 
There  is  an  interchange  by  looks  also;  and  the 
ever-varying  hues  of  the  mind  are  represented,  not 
by  the  complexion  of  the  face  alone  or  the  com- 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  151 

position  of  its  features,  but  by  the  attitude  and 
gestures  of  the  body.*  It  is  thus  that  human 
sentiment  or  passion  may  come  to  be  expressed  by 
the  colour  and  form  and  even  the  motion  of  visible 
things ;  by  a  kindred  physiognomy  for  all  the  like 
emotions  on  the  part  of  the  inferior  animals — nay, 
by  a  certain  countenance  or  shape  in  the  objects  of 
mute  and  unconscious  nature.  It  is  thus  that  a 
moral  investment  sits  on  the  aspects  of  the  purely 
material  world ;  and  we  accordingly  speak  of  the 
modesty  of  the  violet,  the  innocence  of  the  lily,  the 
commanding  mountain,  the  smiling  landscape. 
Each  material  object  has  its  character,  as  is  amply 
set  forth  in  the  beautiful  illustrations  of  Mr.  Alison ; 
and  so  to  the  poet's  eye,  the  whole  panorama  of 
nature  is  one  grand  personification,  lighted  up 
throughout  by  consciousness  and  feeling.  This 
is  the  reason  why  in  all  languages,  material  images 
and  moral  characteristics  are  so  blended  and 
identified.  It  is  the  law  of  association  which  thus 
connects  the  two  worlds  of  sense  and  of  sentiment. 
Sublimity  in  the  one  is  the  counterpart  to  moral 
greatness  in  the  other ;  and  beauty  in  the  one  is 
the  counterpart  to  moral  delicacy  in  the  other. 
Both  the  graceful  and  the  grand  of  human  character 
are  as   effectually   embodied  in   the  objects   and 

*  We  may  here  state  that  as  the  air  is  the  medium  by  which 
sounds  are  conveyed — so  light  may  be  regarded  as  standing  in 
the  same  relation  to  those  natural  signs  whether  of  colour  gesture 
or  attitude  which  are  addressed  to  the  eye.  Much  could  be  said 
respecting  the  adaptation  of  light  to  the  moral  constitution  of  man 
. — arising  from  the  power  which  the  very  observation  of  our 
fellow-men  has  in  repressing,  so  long  as  we  are  under  it,  indecency 
or  crime.     The  works  of  iniquity  are  called  works  of  darkness. 


152  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

scenery  of  nature,  as  in  those  immortal  forms  which 
have  been  transmitted  by  the  hand  of  sculptors  to 
the  admiration  of  distant  ages.  It  is  a  noble 
testimony  to  the  righteousness  of  God,  that  the 
moral  and  the  external  loveliness  are  thus  har- 
monized— as  well  as  to  the  wisdom  which  has  so 
adapted  the  moral  and  the  material  system  to  each 
other,  that  supreme  virtue  and  supreme  beauty  are 
at  one. 

"  Mind,  mind  alone,  bear  witness  earth  and  heaven! 

The  living  fountain,  in  itself  contains 

Of  beauteous  and  sublime. 

There  hand  in  hand  sit  paramount  the  graces ; 

There  enthroned,  celestial  Venus  with  divinest  airs 

Invites  the  soul  to  never  fading  joy." 

AKENS1DE. 

8.  And  we  may  here  remark  a  certain  neglect 
of  external  things  and  external  influences,  which, 
however  enlightened  or  transcendentally  rational  it 
may  seem,  is  at  variance  with  truth  of  principle 
and  sound  philosophy.  We  would  instance  the 
undervaluing  of  the  natural  signs  in  eloquence, 
although  their  effect  makes  all  the  difference  in 
point  of  impression  and  power  between  spoken 
and  written  language — seeing  that,  superadded  to 
articulate  utterance,  the  eye  and  the  intonations 
and  the  gestures  also  serve  as  so  many  signals  of 
conveyance  for  the  transmission  of  sentiment  from 
one  mind  to  another.  It  is  thus  that  indifference 
to  manner  or  even  to  dress,  may  be  as  grievous  a 
dereliction  against  the  real  philosophy  of  social 
intercourse — as  indifference  to  the  attitude  and  the 
drapery  of  figures  would  be  against  the  philosophy 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  153 

of  the  fine  arts.  Both  proceed  on  the  forgetful- 
ness  of  that  adaptation,  in  virtue  of  which  material- 
ism is  throughout  instinct  with  principle,  and  both 
in  its  colouring  and  forms,  gives  forth  the  most 
significant  expressions  of  it.  On  this  ground  too 
we  would  affirm,  both  of  state  ceremonial  and 
professional  costume,  that  neither  of  them  is  insig- 
nificant ;  and  that  he  who  in  the  spirit  of  rash  and 
restless  innovation  would  upset  them,  as  if  they 
were  the  relics  of  a  gross  and  barbaric  age,  may 
be  doing  violence  not  only  to  the  usages  of  venerable 
antiquity,  but  to  the  still  older  and  more  venerable 
constitution  of  human  nature — weakening  in  truth 
the  bonds  of  social  union,  by  dispensing  with  certain 
of  those  influences  which  the  great  author  of  our 
constitution  designed  for  the  consolidation  and 
good  order  of  society.  This  is  not  accordant 
with  the  philosophy  of  Butler,  who  wrote  on  the 
"  use  of  externals  in  matters  of  religion,"  nor  with 
the  philosophy  of  those  who  prefer  the  findings  of 
experience,  however  irreducible  to  system  they 
may  be,  to  all  the  subtleties  or  simplifications  of 
unsupported  theory.* 

9.  Before  quitting  this  subject,  we  remark,  that 
it  is  no  proof  against  the  theory  which  makes  taste 
a  derivative  from  morality,  that  our  emotions  of 
taste  may  be  vivid  and  powerful,  while  our  princi- 
ples of  morality  are  so  weak  as  to  have  no  ascen- 
dant  or  governing  influence   over  the    conduct. 


*  The  perusal  of  those  works  which  treat  scientifically  of  the 
fine  arts,  as  Sir  Joshua  Reynold's  Discourses,  is  well  adapted  to 
rehuke  and  rectify  the  light  estimation,  in  which  all  sensible 
accompaniments  are  apt  to  be  held  by  us. 
g2 


154   ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

This  is  no  unusual  phenomenon  of  our  mysterious 
nature.  There  is  a  general  homage  rendered  to 
virtue  in  the  world ;  but  it  is  the  homage,  more  of 
a  dilettanti  than  of  an  obedient  and  practical 
devotee.  This  is  not  more  surprising,  than  that 
the  man  of  profligate  habits  should  have  a  tasteful 
admiration  of  sacred  pictures  and  sacred  melodies ; 
or  that,  with  the  heart  of  a  coward,  he  should 
nevertheless  catch  the  glow  of  at  least  a  momentary 
inspiration  from  the  music  of  war  and  patriotism. 
It  seems  the  effect  and  evidence  of  some  great 
moral  derangement,  that  there  should  be  such  an 
incongruity  in  subjective  man  between  his  taste  and 
his  principles  ;  and  the  evidence  is  not  lessened  but 
confirmed,  when  we  observe  a  like  incongruity  in 
the  objective  nature  by  which  he  is  surrounded — 
we  mean,  between  the  external  mental  and  the 
external  material  world.  We  have  only  to  open 
our  eyes  and  see  how  wide,  in  point  of  loveliness, 
the  contrast  or  dissimilarity  is,  between  the  moral 
and  the  material  of  our  actual  contemplation — the 
one  coming  immediately  from  the  hand  of  God; 
the  other  tainted  and  transformed  by  the  spirit  of 
man.  We  believe  with  Alison  and  others,  that, 
to  at  least  a  very  great  extent,  much  of  the  beauty 
of  visible  things  lies  in  association ;  that  it  is  this 
which  gives  its  reigning  expression  to  every  tree 
and  lake  and  waterfall,  and  which  may  be  said  to 
have  impregnated  with  character  the  whole  of  the 
surrounding  landscape.  How  comes  it  then,  that, 
in  the  midst  of  living  society,  where  we  might 
expect  to  meet  with  the  originals  of  all  this 
fascination,  we  find  scarcely  any  other  thing  than 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION*  155 

a  tame  and  uninteresting  level  of  the  flat  and  the 
sordid  and  the  ordinary — whereas,  in  that  inani 
mate  scenery,  which  yields  but  the  faint  and 
secondary  reflection  of  moral  qualities,  there  is,  on 
every  line  and  on  every  feature,  so  vivid  an  impress 
of  loveliness  and  glory  ?  One  cannot  go  forth  of 
the  crowded  city  to  the  fresh  and  the  fair  of  rural 
nature,  without  the  experience,  that,  while  in  the 
moral  scene,  there  is  so  much  to  thwart  and  to 
revolt  and  to  irritate — in  the  natural  scene,  all  is 
gracefulness  and  harmony.  It  reminds  us  of  the 
contrast  which  is  sometimes  exhibited,  between 
the  soft  and  flowery  lawn  of  a  cultivated  domain, 
and  the  dark  or  angry  spirit  of  its  owner — of  whom 
we  might  almost  imagine,  that  he  scowls  from  the 
battlements  of  his  castle,  on  the  intrusion  of  every 
unlicensed  visitor.  And  again  the  question  may 
be  put — whence  is  it  that  the  moral  picturesque 
in  our  world  of  sense,  as  it  beams  upon  us  from  its 
woods  and  its  eminences  and  its  sweet  recesses  of 
crystal  stream  or  of  grassy  sunshine,  should  yield  a 
delight  so  unqualified — while  the  primary  moral 
characteristics,  of  which  these  are  but  the  imagery 
or  the  visible  representation,  should,  in  our  world 
of  human  spirits,  be  so  wholly  obliterated,  or  at 
least  so  wofully  deformed  ?  Does  it  not  look  as 
if  a  blight  had  come  over  the  face  of  our  terrestrial 
creation,  which  hath  left  its  materialism  in  a  great 
measure  untouched,  while  it  hath  inflicted  on  man  a 
sore  and  withering  leprosy  ?  Do  not  the  very  open- 
ness and  benignity  which  sit  on  the  aspect  of  nature 
reproach  him,  for  the  cold  and  narrow  and  creeping 
jealousies  that  be  at  work  in  his  own  selfish  and  sus- 


156   ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

picious  bosom;  and  most  impressively  tell  the  differ- 
ence between  what  man  is,  and  what  he  ought  to  be  ? 

10.  There  are  certain  other  adaptations;  but 
on  which  we  forbear  to  expatiate.  The  relation 
between  food  and  hunger,  between  the  object  and 
the  appetite,  is  an  instance  of  the  adaptation 
between  external  nature  and  man's  physical  con- 
stitution— yet  the  periodical  recurrence  of  the 
appetite  itself,  with  its  imperious  demand  to  be 
satisfied,  viewed  as  an  impellent  to  labour  even 
the  most  irksome  and  severe,  has  an  important 
effect  both  on  the  moral  constitution  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  on  the  state  of  society.  The  super- 
ficies of  the  human  body,  in  having  been  made  so 
exquisitely  alive  at  every  pore  to  the  sensations  of 
pain,  may  be  regarded  as  nature's  defensive  cover- 
ing against  those  exposures  from  without,  which 
else  might  injure  or  destroy  it.  This  is  purely  a 
physical  adaptation,  but  it  involves  a  moral  adap- 
tation also  ;  for  this  shrinking  and  sensitive  avoid- 
ance, at  the  first  approaches  of  pain,  affords  a 
similar  protection  against  certain  hazards  from 
within — as  self-mutilation  in  the  moment  of  the 
spirit's  wantonness,  or  even  self-destruction  in  the 
moment  of  its  despair. 

11.  But  we  now  proceed  to  specify  the  chief 
instances  of  this  adaptation  of  External  Nature  to 
the  Intellectual  Constitution  of  Man. 

12.  (1.)  The  law  of  most  extensive  influence 
over  the  phenomena  and  processes  of  the  mind,  is 
the  law  of  association,  or,  as  denominated  by  Dr. 
Thomas  Brown,  the  law  of  suggestion.     If  two 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  157 

objects  have  been  seen  in  conjunction,  or  in  im- 
mediate succession,  at  any  one  time — then  the  sight 
or  thought  of  one  of  them  afterwards,  is  apt  to 
suggest  the  thought  of  the  other  also ;  and  the 
same  is  true  of  the  objects  of  all  the  senses.  The 
same  smells  or  sounds  or  tastes  which  have  occurred 
formerly,  when  they  occur  again,  will  often  recall 
the  objects  from  which  they  then  proceeded,  the 
occasions  or  other  objects  with  which  they  were 
then  associated.  When  one  meets  with  a  fragrance 
of  a  particular  sort,  it  may  often  instantly  suggest 
a  fragrance  of  the  same  kind  experienced  months 
or  years  ago ;  the  rose-bush  from  which  it  came ; 
the  garden  where  it  grew ;  the  friend  with  whom 
we  then  walked ;  his  features,  his  conversation,  his 
relatives,  his  history.  When  two  ideas  have  been 
once  in  juxta-position,  they  are  apt  to  present 
themselves  in  juxta-position  over  again — an  apti- 
tude which  ever  increases  the  oftener  that  the  con- 
junction has  taken  place,  till,  as  if  by  an  invincible 
necessity,  the  antecedent  thought  is  sure  to  bring 
its  usual  consequent  along  with  it ;  and,  not  only 
single  sequences,  but  lengthened  trains  or  progres- 
sions of  thought,  may  in  this  manner  be  explained. 
13.  And  such  are  the  great  sr^eed  and  facility 
of  these  successions,  that  many  of  the  intermediate 
terms,  though  all  of  them  undoubtedly  present  to 
the  mind,  flit  so  quickly  and  evanescently,  as  to 
pass  unnoticed.  This  will  the  more  certainly  hap- 
pen, if  the  antecedents  are  of  no  further  use  than 
to  introduce  the  consequents ;  in  which  case,  the 
consequents  remain  as  the  sole  objects  of  atten- 
tion, and  the  antecedents  are  forgotten.     In  the 


158    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

act  of  reading,  the  ultimate  object  is  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  the  author's  sentiments  or  meaning ;  and 
all  memory  of  the  words,  still  more  of  the  compo- 
nent letters,  though  each  of  them  must  have  been 
present  to  the  mind,  pass  irrecoverably  away  from 
it.  In  like  manner,  the  anterior  steps  of  many  a 
mental  process  may  actually  be  described,  yet 
without  consciousness — the  attention  resting,  not 
on  the  fugitive  means,  but  on  the  important  end  in 
which  they  terminate.  It  is  thus  that  we  seem  to 
judge,  on  the  instant,  of  distances,  as  if  under  a 
guidance  that  was  immediate  and  instinctive,  and 
not  by  the  result  of  a  derivative  process — because 
insensible  to  the  rapid  train  of  inference  which  led 
to  it.  The  mind  is  too  much  occupied  with  the 
information  itself,  for  looking  back  on  the  light  and 
shadowy  footsteps  of  the  messenger  who  brought 
it,  which  it  would  find  difficult  if  not  impossible  to 
trace — and  besides,  having  no  practical  call  upon 
it  for  making  such  a  retrospect.  It  is  thus  that, 
when  looking  intensely  on  some  beautiful  object  in 
Nature,  we  are  so  much  occupied  with  the  resulting 
enjoyment,  as  to  overlook  the  intermediate  train 
of  unbidden  associations,  which  connects  the  sight 
of  that  which  is  before  us,  with  the  resulting  and 
exquisite  pleasure,-  that  we  feel  in  the  act  of  behold- 
ing it.  The  principle  has  been  much  resorted  to,  in 
expounding  that  process,  by  which  the  education  of 
the  senses  is  carried  forward;  and,  more  especially, 
the  way  in  which  the  intimations  of  sight  and  touch  are 
made  to  correct  and  to  modify  each  other.  It  has 
also  been  employed  with  good  effect,  in  the  attempt 
to  establish  a  philosophy   of    taste.      But  these 


TO  THE  MENTAL  C0NST1TUT  ON.  159 

rapid  and  fugitive  associations,  while  they  form 
a  real,  form  also  an  unseen  process ;  and  we  are 
not  therefore  to  wonder,  if,  along  with  many  solid 
explanations,  they  should  have  been  so  applied  in 
the  investigation  of  mental  phenomena,  as  occa- 
sionally to  have  given  rise  to  subtle  and  fantastic 
theories. 

14.  But  our  proper  business  at  present  is  with 
results,  rather  than  with  processes  ;  and  instead  of 
entering  on  the  more  recondite  inquiries  of  the 
science,  however  interesting  and  however  beautiful 
or  even  satisfactory  the  conclusions  may  be  to 
which  they  lead — it  is  our  task  to  point  out  those 
palpable  benefits  and  subserviences  of  our  intellec- 
tual constitution,  which  demonstrate,  without  ob- 
scurity, the  benevolent  designs  of  Him  who  framed 
us.  There  are  some  of  our  mental  philosophers, 
indeed,  who  have  theorised  and  simplified  beyond 
the  evidence  of  those  facts  which  lie  before  us ;  and 
our  argument  should  be  kept  clear,  for  in  reality 
it  does  not  partake,  in  the  uncertainty  or  error  of 
their  speculations.  The  law  of  association,  for 
example,  has  been  of  late  reasoned  upon,  as  if  it 
were  the  sole  parent  and  predecessor  of  all  the 
mental  phenomena.  Yet  it  does  not  explain,  how- 
ever largely  it  may  influence,  the  phenomena  of 
memory.  When  by  means  of  one  idea,  anyhow 
awakened  in  the  mind,  the  whole  of  some  past 
transaction  or  scene  is  brought  to  recollection,  it 
is  association  which  recalls  to  our  thoughts  this 
portion  of  our  former  history.  But  association 
cannot  explain  our  recognition  of  its  actual  and 
historical  truth — or  what  it  is,  which,  beside  an  act 


160     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

of  conception,  makes  it  also  an  act  of  remembrance. 
By  means  of  this  law  we  may  understand  how  it 
is,  that  certain  ideas,  suggested  by  certain  others 
which  came  before  it,  are  now  present  to  the  mind. 
But  superadded  to  the  mere  presence  of  these 
ideas,  there  is  such  a  perception  of  the  reality  of 
their  archetypes,  as  distinguishes  a  case  of  re- 
membrance from  a  case  of  imagination — insomuch 
that  over  and  above  the  conception  of  certain 
objects,  there  is  also  a  conviction  of  their  substan- 
tive being  at  the  time  which  we  connect  with  the 
thought  of  them;  and  this  is  what  the  law  of 
association  cannot  by  itself  account  for.  It  cannot 
account  for  our  reliance  upon  memory — not  as  a 
conjurer  of  visions  into  the  chamber  of  imagery, 
but  as  an  informer  of  stable  and  objective  truths 
which  had  place  and  fulfilment  in  the  actual  world 
of  experience. 

15.  And  the  same  is  true  of  our  believing  antici- 
pations of  the  future,  which  we  have  now  affirmed 
to  be  true  of  our  believing  retrospects  of  the  past. 
The  confidence  wherewith  we  count  on  the  same 
sequences  in  future,  that  we  have  observed  in  the 
course  of  our  past  experience,  has  been  resolved 
by  some  philosophers,  into  the  principle  of  associa- 
tion alone.  Now  when  we  have  seen  a  certain 
antecedent  followed  up  by  a  certain  consequent, 
the  law  of  association  does  of  itself  afford  a  suffi- 
cient reason,  why  the  idea  of  that  antecedent  should 
be  followed  up  by  the  idea  of  its  consequent ;  but 
it  contains  within  it  no  reason,  why,  on  the  actual 
occurrence  again  of  the  antecedent,  we  should  be- 
lieve that  the^consequent  will  occur  also.     That 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  161 

the  thought  of  the  antecedent  should  suggest  the 
thought  of  the  consequent,  is  one  mental  pheno- 
menon.     That  the  knowledge   of  the  antecedent 
having  anew  taken  place,  should  induce  the  cer- 
tainty, that  the  consequent  must  have  taken  place 
also,  is  another  mental  phenomenon.      We  cannot 
confound  these  two,  without  being  involved  in  the 
idealism  of  Hume  or  Berkeley.      Were  the  mere 
thought  of  the  consequent  all  that  was  to  be  account- 
ed for,  we  need  not  go  farther  than  to  the  law  of 
association.      But  when   to  the  existence  of  this 
thought,  there  is  superadded  a  belief  in  the  reality  of 
its  archetype,  a  distinct  mental  phenomenon  comes 
into  view,  which  the  law  of  association  does  not 
explain  ;  and  which,  for  aught  that  the  analysts  of 
the  mind  have  yet  been  able  to  trace  or  to  discover, 
is  an  ultimate  principle  of  the  human  understanding. 
This  belief,  then,  is  one  thing.      But  ere  we  can 
make  out  an  adaptation,  we  must  be  able  to  allege 
at  least  two  things.      And  they  are  ready  to  our 
hands— for,  in  addition  to  the  belief  in  the  subjective 
mind,   there  is   a  correspondent   and  counterpart 
reality  in  objective  nature.      If  we  have  formerly 
observed  that  a  given  antecedent  is  followed  by  a 
certain  consequent,  then,  not  only  does  the  idea  of 
the  antecedent  suggest  the  idea  of  the  consequent ; 
but  there  is  a  belief,  that,  on  the  actual  occurrence 
of  the  same  antecedent,  the  same  consequent  will 
follow  over  again.      And  the  consequent  does  fol- 
low ;  or,  in  other  words,  this  our  instinctive  faith 
meets  with  its  unexpected  fulfilment,  in  the  actual 
course  and  constancy  of  nature.*     The  law  of  asso- 
ciation does  of  itself,  and  without  going  further^ 


162   ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

secure  this  general  convenience — that  the  courses 
of  the  mind  are  thereby  conformed,  or  are  made  to 
quadrate  and  harmonize  with  the  courses  of  the 
outer  world.  It  is  the  best  possible  construction 
for  the  best  and  most  useful  guidance  of  the  mind, 
as  in  the  exercise  of  memory  for  example,  that 
thought  should  be  made  to  follow  thought,  according 
to  the  order  in  which  the  objects  and  events  of 
nature  are  related  to  each  other.  But  a  belief 
in  the  certainty  and  uniformity  of  this  order,  with 
the  counterpart  verification  of  this  belief  in  the 
actual  history  of  things,  is  that  which  we  now  are 
especially  regarding.  It  forms  our  first  instance, 
perhaps  the  most  striking  and  marvellous  of  all,  of 
the  adaptation  of  external  nature  to  the  intellectual 
constitution  of  man. 

16.  This  disposition  to  count  on  the  uniformity 
of  Nature,  or  even  to  anticipate  the  same  conse- 
quents from  the  same  antecedents — is  not  the  fruit 
of  experience,  but  anterior  to  it ;  or  at  least  ante- 
rior to  the  very  earliest  of  those  of  her  lessons,  which 
can  be  traced  backward  in  the  history  of  an  infant 
mind.  Indeed  it  has  been  well  observed  by  Dr. 
Thomas  Brown,  that  the  future  constancy  of  Nature, 
is  a  lesson,  which  no  observation  of  its  past  constan- 
cy, or  no  experience  could  have  taught  us.  Because 
we  have  observed  A  a  thousand  times  to  be  follow- 
ed in  immediate  succession  by  B,  there  is  no  greater 
logical  connexion  between  this  proposition  and 
the  proposition  that  A  will  always  be  followed  by 
B  ;  than  there  is  between  the  propositions  that  we 
have  seen  A  followed  once  by  B,  and  therefore  A 
will  always  be  followed  by  B.     At  whatever  stage 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  163 

of  the  experience,  the  inference  may  be  made, 
whether  longer  or  shorter,  whether  oftener  or  sel- 
domer  repeated — the  conversion  of  the  past  into 
the  future  seems  to  require  a  distinct  and  indepen- 
dent principle  of  belief ;  and  it  is  a  principle  which, 
to  all  appearance,  is  as  vigorous  in  childhood,  as  in 
the  full  maturity  of  the  human  understanding.  The 
child  who  strikes  the  table  with  a  spoon  for  the  first 
time,  and  is  regaled  by  the  noise,  will  strike  again, 
with  as  confident  an  expectation  of  the  same  result, 
as  if  the  succession  had  been  familiar  to  it  for 
years.  There  is  the  expectation  before  the  expe- 
rience of  Nature's  constancy ;  and  still  the  topic 
of  our  wonder  and  gratitude  is,  that  this  instinctive 
and  universal  faith  in  the  heart,  should  be  respond- 
ed to  by  objective  nature,  in  one  wide  and  universal 
fulfilment. 

17.  The  proper  office  of  experience,  in  this 
matter,  is  very  generally  misapprehended;  and 
this  has  mystified  the  real  principle  and  philosophy 
of  the  subject.  Her  office  is  not  to  tell,  or  to 
reassure  us  of  the  constancy  of  Nature;  but  to 
tell,  what  the  terms  of  her  unalterable  progressions 
actually  are.  The  human  mind  from  its  first  out- 
set, and  in  virtue  of  a  constitutional  bias  coeval 
with  the  earliest  dawn  of  the  understanding,  is 
prepared,  and  that  before  experience  has  begun 
her  lessons,  to  count  on  the  constancy  of  nature's 
sequences.  But  at  that  time,  it  is  profoundly 
ignorant  of  the  sequences  in  themselves.  It  is  the 
proper  business  of  experience  to  give  this  infor- 
mation; but  it  may  require  many  lessons  before 
that  her  disciples  be  made  to  understand,  what  be 


164    ADPATATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

the  distinct  terms  even  of  but  one  sequence. 
Nature  presents  us  with  her  phenomena  in  complex 
assemblages ;  and  it  is  often  difficult,  in  the  work 
of  disentangling  her  trains  from  each  other,  to 
single  out  the  proper  and  causal  antecedent  with 
its  resulting  consequent,  from  among  the  crowd  of 
accessary  or  accidental  circumstances  by  which 
they  are  surrounded.  There  is  never  any  uncer- 
tainty, as  to  the  invariableness  of  nature's  succes- 
sions. The  only  uncertainty  is  as  to  the  steps  of 
each  succession ;  and  the  distinct  achievement  of 
experience,  is  to  ascertain  these  steps.  And  many 
mistakes  are  committed  in  this  course  of  education, 
from  our  disposition  to  confound  the  similarities 
with  the  samenesses  of  Nature.  We  never  misgive 
in  our  general  confidence,  that  the  same  antecedent 
will  be  followed  by  the  same  consequent;  but  we 
often  mistake  the  semblance  for  the  reality,  and  are 
as  often  disappointed  in  the  expectations  that  we 
form.  This  is  the  real  account  of  that  growing 
confidence,  wherewith  we  anticipate  the  same 
results  in  the  same  apparent  circumstances,  the 
oftener  that  that  result  has  in  these  circumstances 
been  observed  by  us — as  of  a  high-water  about 
twice  every  day,  or  of  a  sun-rise  every  morning. 
It  is  not  that  we  need  to  be  more  assured  than  we 
are  already  of  the  constancy  of  Nature,  in  the 
sense  that  every  result  must  always  be  the  sure 
effect  of  its  strict  and  causal  antecedent.  But  we 
need  to  be  assured  of  the  real  presence  of  this 
antecedent,  in  that  mass  of  contemporaneous  things 
under  which  the  result  has  taken  place  hitherto ; 
and  of  this  we  are  more  and  more  satisfied,  with 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  165 

every  new  occurrence  of  the  same  event  in  the 
same  apparent  circumstances.      This  too  is  our 
real  object  in  the  repetition  of  experiments.      Not 
that  we  suspect  that  Nature  will  ever  vacillate  from 
her  constancy — for  if  by  one  decisive  experiment 
we  should  fix  the  real  terms  of  any  succession, 
this  experiment  were  to  us  as  good  as  a  thousand. 
But  each  succession  in  nature  is  so  liable  to  be 
obscured  and  complicated  by  other  influences,  that 
we  must  be  quite  sure,  ere  we  can  proclaim  our 
discovery  of  some  new  sequence,   that  we  have 
properly  disentangled  her  separate  trains  from  each 
other.      For  this  purpose,  we  have  often  to  ques- 
tion Nature  in  many  different  ways ;  we  have  to 
combine  and  apply  her  elements   variously;   we 
have  sometimes  to  detach  one  ingredient,  or  to  add 
another,  or  to  alter  the  proportions  of  a  third — 
and  all  in  order,  not  to  ascertain  the  invariableness 
of  Nature,   for  of  this   we  have  had  instinctive 
certainty  from   the   beginning;   but,  in  order  to 
ascertain  what  the  actual  footsteps  of  her  progres- 
sions are,  so  as  to  connect  each  effect  in  the  history 
of  Nature's  changes   with  its  strict   and   proper 
cause.      Meanwhile,  amid  all  the  suspense  and  the 
frequent  disappointments  which  attend  this  search 
into  the  processes  of  nature,  our  confidence  in  the 
rigid  and  inviolable  uniformity  of  these  processes 
remains  unshaken — a  confidence  not  learned  from 
experience,  but  amply  confirmed  and  accorded  to 
by  experience.     For  this  instinctive  expectation  is 
never  once  refuted,  in  the  whole  course  of  our 
subsequent  researches.     Nature  though  stretched 
on  a  rack,  or  put  to  the  torture  by  the  inquisitors 


166    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

of  science,  never  falters  from  her  immutability ; 
but  persists,  unseduced  and  unwearied,  in  the  same 
response  to  the  same  question ;  or  gives  forth,  by 
a  spark,  or  an  explosion,  or  an  effervescence,  or 
some  other  definite  phenomenon,  the  same  result 
to  the  same  circumstances  or  combination  of  data. 
The  anticipations  of  infancy  meet  with  their  glo- 
rious verification,  in  all  the  findings  of  manhood ; 
and  a  truth  which  would  seem  to  require  Omnisci- 
ence for  its  grasp,  as  coextensive  with  all  Nature 
and  all  History,  is  deposited  by  the  hand  of  God, 
in  the  little  cell  of  a  nursling's  cogitations. 

18.  Yet  the  immutability  of  Nature  has  minis- 
tered to  the  atheism  of  some  spirits,  as  impressing 
on  the  universe  a  character  of  blind  necessity, 
instead  of  that  spontaneity,  which  might  mark 
the  intervention  of  a  willing  and  a  living  God. 
To  refute  this  notion  of  an  unintelligent  fate,  as 
being  the  alone  presiding  Divinity,  the  common 
appeal  is  to  the  infinity  and  exquisite  skill  of 
nature's  adaptations.  But  to  attack  this  infidelity 
in  its  fortress,  and  dislodge  it  thence,  the  more 
appropriate  argument  would  be  the  very,  the 
individual  adaptation  on  which  we  have  now 
insisted — the  immutability  of  Nature,  in  conjunction 
with  the  universal  sense  and  expectation,  even 
from  earliest  childhood,  that  all  men  have  of  it; 
being  itself  one  of  the  most  marvellous  and 
strikingly  beneficial  of  these  adaptations.  When 
viewed  aright,  it  leads  to  a  wiser  and  sounder 
conclusion  than  that  of  the  fatalists.  In  the 
instinctive,  the  universal  faith  of  Nature's  con- 
stancy,  we    behold    a  promise.     In  the   actual 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  167 

constancy  of  Nature,  we  behold  its  fulfilment. 
When  the  two  are  viewed  in  connexion,  then,  to 
be  told  that  Nature  never  recedes  from  her  con- 
stancy, is  to  be  told  that  the  God  of  Nature  never 
recedes  from  his  faithfulness.  If  not  by  a  whisper 
from  His  voice,  at  least  by  the  impress  of  His 
hand,  He  hath  deposited  a  silent  expectation  in 
every  heart ;  and  he  makes  all  Nature  and  all 
History  conspire  to  realize  it.  He  hath  not  only 
enabled  man  to  retain  in  his  memory  a  faithful 
transcript  of  the  past ;  but  by  means  of  this  con- 
stitutional tendency,  this  instinct  of  the  understand- 
ing as  it  has  been  termed,  to  look  with  prophetic 
eye  upon  the  future.  It  is  the  link  by  which  we 
connect  experience  with  anticipation — a  power 
or  exercise  of  the  mind  coeval  with  the  first 
dawnings  of  consciousness  or  observation,  because 
obviously  that  to  which  we  owe  the  confidence  so 
early  acquired  and  so  firmly  established,  in  the 
information  of  our  senses.*      This  disposition  to 

•  It  is  from  our  tactual  sensations  that  we  obtain  our  first 
original  perceptions  of  distance  and  magnitude ;  and  it  is  only 
because  of  the  invariable  connexion  which  subsists  between  the 
same  tactual  and  the  same  visual  sensations,  that  by  means  of  the 
latter  we  obtain  secondary  or  acquired  perceptions  of  distance  and 
magnitude.  It  is  obvious  that  without  a  faith  in  the  uniformity 
of  nature,  this  rudimental  education  could  not  have  taken  effect ; 
and  from  the  confidence  wherewith  we  proceed  in  very  early 
childhood  on  the  intimations  of  the  eye,  we  may  infer  how  strongly 
this  principle  must  have  been  at  work  throughout  the  anterior 
stage  of  our  still  earlier  infancy.  The  lucid  and  satisfactory 
demonstration  upon  this  subject  in  that  delightful  little  work,  the 
Theory  of  Vision,  by  Bishop  Berkeley,  has  not  been  superseded, 
because  it  has  not  been  improved  upon,  by  the  lucubrations  of  any 
subsequent  author.  The  theology  which  he  would  found  on  the 
beautiful  process  which  he  has  unfolded  so  well,  is  somewhat 
tinged  with  the  mysticism  of  that  doctrine  which  represents  our 
seeing  all  things  in  God.     Certain  it  is,  however,  that  the  process 


168   ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

presume  on  the  constancy  of  nature,  commences 
with  the  faculty  of  thought,  and  keeps  by  it  through 
life,  and  enables  the  mind  to  convert  its  stores  of 
memory  into  the  treasures  of  science  and  wisdom 
and  so  to  elicit  from  the  recollections  of  the  past, 


could  not  have  been  advanced  or  consummated,  without  an 
aboriginal  faith  on  the  part  of  the  infant  mind  in  the  uniformity  of 
nature's  sequences,  a  disposition  to  expect  the  same  consequents 
from  the  same  antecedents — -and  hence,  an  inference  which,,  when- 
ever these  same  antecedents  present  themselves,  is  at  length  made, 
and  that  in  very  early  childhood,  with  such  rapidity  as  well  as 
confidence,  that  it  leads  all  men  to  confound  their  acquired  with 
their  original  perceptions  ;  and  it  requires  a  subtle  analysis  to 
disentangle  the  two  from  each  other.  Without  partaking  in  the 
metaphysics  of  Berkeley,  we  fully  concur  in  the  strength  and 
certainty  of  those  theistical  conclusions  which  are  expressed  by 
him  in  the  following  sentences — "  Something  there  is  of  divine 
and  admirable  in  this  language  addressed  to  our  eyes,  that  may 
well  awaken  the  mind,  and  deserve  its  Utmost  attention  ;  it  is 
learned  with  so  little  pains,  it  expresses  the  difference  of  things  so 
clearly  and  aptly,  it  instructs  with  such  facility  and  despatch,  by 
one  glance  of  the  eye  conveying  a  greater  variety  of  advices, 
and  a  more  distinct  knowledge  of  things,  than  could  be  got  by  a 
discourse  of  several  hours  :  and,  while  it  informs,  it  amuses  and 
entertains  the  mind  with  such  singular  pleasure  and  delight ;  it  is 
of  such  excellent  use  in  giving  a  stability  and  permanency  to 
human  discourse,  in  recording  sounds  and  bestowing  life  on  dead 
languages,  enabling  us  to  converse  with  men  of  remote  ages  and 
countries  ;  and  it  answers  so  opposite  to  the  uses  and  necessities 
of  mankind,  informing  us  more  distinctly  of  those  objects,  whose 
nearness  or  magnitude  qualify  them  to  be  of  greatest  detriment 
or  benefit  to  our  bodies,  and  less  exactly  in  proportion  as  their 
littleness  or  distance  make  them  of  less  concern  to  us.  But  these 
things  are  not  strange,  they  are  familiar,  and  that  makes  them  to 
be  overlooked.  Things  which  rarely  happen  strike  ;  whereas 
frequency  lessens  the  admiration  of  things,  though  in  themselves 
ever  so  admirable.  Hence  a  common  man  who  is  not  used  to 
think  and  make  reflections,  would  probably  be  more  convinced  of 
the  being  of  a  God  by  one  single  sentence  heard  once  in  his  life 
from  the  sky,  than  by  all  the  experience  he  has  had  of  this  visual 
language,  contrived  with  such  exquisite  skill,  so  constantly 
addressed  to  his  eyes,  and  so  plainly  declaring  the  nearness, 
wisdom,  and  providence  of  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do." 
Minute  Philosopher.     Dialogue  IV.  Art.  XV. 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  169 

both  the  doctrines  of  a  general  philosophy,  and  the 
lessons  of  daily  and  familiar  conduct — and  that, 
by  means  of  prognostics,  not  one  of  which  can  fail, 
for,  in  respect  of  her  steadfast  uniformity,  Nature 
never  disappoints,  or,  which  is  equivalent  to  this, 
the  Author  of  Nature  never  deceives  us.  The 
generality  of  Nature's  laws  is  indispensable,  both 
to  the  formation  of  any  system  of  truth  for  the 
understanding,  and  to  the  guidance  of  our  actions. 
Bat  ere  we  can  make  such  use  of  it,  the  sense  ana 
the  confident  expectation  of  this  generality  must 
be  previously  in  our  minds ;  and  the  concurrence, 
the  contingent  harmony  of  these  two  elements ; 
the  exquisite  adaptation  of  the  objective  to  the 
subjective,  with  the  manifest  utilities  to  which  it 
is  subservient ;  the  palpable  and  perfect  meetness 
which  subsists,  between  this  intellectual  propensity 
in  man,  and  all  the  processes  of  the  outward 
universe — while  they  afford  incontestable  evidence 
to  the  existence  and  unity  of  that  design,  which 
must  have  adjusted  the  mental  and  the  material 
formations  to  each  other,  speak  most  decisively  in 
our  estimation  both  for  the  truth  and  the  wisdom 
cf  God. 

19.  We  have  long  felt  this  close  and  unex- 
cepted,  while  at  the  same  time,  contingent  har- 
mony, between  the  actual  constancy  of  Nature  and 
man's  faith  in  that  constancy,  to  be  an  effectual 
preservative  against  that  scepticism,  which  would 
represent  the  whole  system  of  our  thoughts  and 
perceptions  to  be  founded  on  an  illusion.  Certain 
it  is,  that  beside  an  indefinite  number  of  truths 
received  by  the  understanding  as  the  conclusions 

VOL.  II.  H 


170    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLI> 

of  a  proof  more   or  less   lengthened,    there   are 
truths   recognised   without   proof    by    an   instant 
act  of  intuition — not  the   results    of  a  reasoning 
process,    but    themselves    the    first   principles    of 
all  reasoning.      At  every  step  in  the  train  of  argu- 
mentation, we  affirm  one  thing  to  be  true,  because 
of  its  logical  connexion  with  another  thing  known 
to  be  true;  but  as  this  process  of  derivation  is 
not  eternal,  it  is  obvious,  that,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  at  least  some  of  these  trains,  there  must 
be  truths,  which,  instead  of  borrowing  their  evi- 
dence from  others,  announce  themselves  immedi- 
ately to  the  mind  in  an  original  and  independent 
evidence   of    their    own.       Now   they    are   these 
primary  convictions  of  the   understanding,   these 
cases  of  a  belief  without  reason,  which  minister  to 
the  philosophical  infidelity  of  those,  who,  profess- 
ing to  have  no.  dependence  on  an  instinctive  faith, 
do  in  fact  alike  discard  all  truth,  whether  demon- 
strated or  undemonstrated — seeing  that  underived 
or   unreasoned   truth    must  necessarily  form   the 
basis,   as   well   as    the  continuous   cement  of  all 
reasoning.    They  challenge  us  to  account  for  \hese 
native  and  original  convictions  of  the  mind ;  and 
affirm   that   they    may   be   as   much   due   to   an 
arbitrary  organization  of  the  percipient  faculty,  as 
to  the  objective  trueness  of  the  things  which  are 
perceived.      And  we  cannot  dispute  the  possibility 
of  this.      We  can   neither   establish  by  reasoning 
those  truths,  whose  situation  is,  not  any  where  in 
the  stream,  but  at  the  fountain  of  ratiocination; 
nor  can  we  deny  that  beings  might  have  been  so 
differently  constituted,  as  that,  with  reverse  intuitions 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  171 

to  our  own,  they  might  have  recognised  as  truths 
what  we  instantly  recoil  from  as  falsehoods,  or 
felt  to  be  absurdities  our  first  and  foremost  princi- 
ples of  truth.  And  when  this  suspicion  is  once 
admitted,  so  as  to  shake  our  confidence  in  the 
judgments  of  the  intellect,  it  were  but  consistent 
that  it  should  be  extended  to  the  departments  both 
of  morality  and  taste.  Our  impressions  of  what 
is  virtuous  or  of  what  is  fair,  may  be  regarded  as 
alike  accidental,  and  arbitrary  with  our  impressions 
of  what  is  true — being  referable  to  the  structure 
of  the  mind,  and  not  to  any  objective  reality  in 
the  things  which  are  contemplated.  It  is  thus 
that  the  absolutely  true,  or  good,  or  beautiful, 
may  be  conceived  of,  as  having  no  stable  or 
substantive  being  in  nature ;  and  the  mind,  adrift 
from  all  fixed  principle,  may  thus  lose  itself  in 
universal  pyrrhonism. 

20.  Nature  is  fortunately  too  strong  for  this 
speculation ;  but  still  there  is  a  comfort  in  being 
enabled  to  vindicate  the  confidence  which  she  has 
inspired — as  in  those  cases,  where  some  original 
principle  of  hers  admits  of  being  clearly  and 
decisively  tested.  And  it  is  so  of  our  faith  in  the 
constancy  of  nature,  met  and  responded  to,  through- 
out all  her  dominions  by  nature's  actual  constancy 
■ — the  one  being  the  expectation,  the  other  its  rigid 
and  invariable  fulfilment.  This  perhaps  is  the 
most  palpable  instance  which  can  be  quoted,  of  a 
belief  anterior  to  experience,  yet  of  which  experi- 
ence affords  a  wide  and  unexcepted  verification. 
It  proves  at  least  of  one  of  our  implanted  instincts, 
that  it  is  unerring ;  and  that,  over  against  a  sub- 


172    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

jective    tendency   in    the   mind,   there   is  a  great 
objective  reality  in  circumambient  nature  to  which 
it  corresponds.      This  may  well  convince  us,  that 
we  live,  not  in  a  world  of  imaginations — but  in  a 
world  of  realities.      It  is  a  noble  example  of  the 
harmony  which  obtains,  between  the  original  make 
and  constitution  of  the  human  spirit  upon  the  one 
hand,  and  the  constitution  of  external  things  upon 
the  other ;  and  nobly  accredits  the  faithfulness  of 
Him,  who,  as  the  Creator  of  both,  ordained  this 
happy  and  wondrous  adaptation.      The  monstrous 
suspicion  of  the   sceptics  is,  that  we   are  in  the 
hands  of  a  God,  who,  by  the  insertion  of  falsities 
into  the  human  system,  sports  himself  with  a  labo- 
rious deception  on  the  creatures  whom    He   has 
made.      The  invariable  order   of  nature,  in  con- 
junction with  the  apprehension  of  this  invariable- 
ness  existing  in  all  hearts  ;  the  universal  expectation 
with   its    universal    fulfilment,     is    a    triumphant 
refutation  of  this  degrading  mockery — evincing,  that 
it  is  not  a  phantasmagoria  in  which  we  dwell,  but 
a  world  peopled  with  realities.     That  we  are  never 
misled  in  our  instinctive  belief  of  nature's  uniform- 
ity, demonstrates  the  perfect  safety  wherewith  we 
may  commit  ourselves  to  the  guidance  of  our  original 
principles,  whether  intellectual  or  moral — assured, 
that,  instead  of   occupying  a  land  of  shadows,  a 
region  of  universal  doubt  and  derision,  they  are 
the  stabilities,  both   of   an  everlasting  truth  and 
an  everlasting  righteousness  with  which  we  have 
to  do. 

21.  This  lesson  obtains  a  distinct  and  additional 
confirmation    from   every   particular    instance    of 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  173 

adaptation,  which  can  be  found,  of  external  nature, 
either  to  the  moral  or  intellectual  constitution  of 
man. 

22.  (2.)  To  understand  our  second  adaptation 
we  must  advert  to  the  difference  that  obtains  be- 
tween those  truths  which  are  so  distinct  and  inde- 
pendent, that  each  can  only  be  ascertained  by  a 
separate  act  of  observation  ;  and  those  truths  which 
are  either  logically  or  mathematically  involved  in 
each  other.*  For  example,  there  is  no  such  depen- 
dence between  the  colour  of  a  flower  and  its  smell, 
as  that  the  one  can  be  reasoned  from  the  other ;  and, 
in  every  different  specimen  therefore,  we,  to  ascer- 
tain the  two  facts  of  the  colour  and  the  smell, 
must  have  recourse  to  two  observations.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  such  a  dependence  between 


*  See  this  distinction  admirably  expounded  in  Whately's  Logic 
— a  work  of  profound  judgment,  and  which  effectually  vindicates 
the  honours  of  a  science,  that  since  the  days  of  Bacon,  or  rather 
(which  is  more  recent)  since  the  days  of  his  extravagant  because 
exclusive  authority,  it  has  been  too  much  the  fashion  to  depreciate. 
The  author,  if  I  might  use  the  expression  without  irreverence,  has 
given  to  Bacon  the  things  which  are  Bacon's,  and  to  Aristotle  the 
things  which  are  Aristotle's.  He  has  strengthened  the  pretensions 
of  logic  by  narrowing  them — that  is,  instead  of  placing  all  the 
intellectual  processes  under  its  direction,  by  assigning  to  it  as  its 
proper  subject  the  art  of  deduction  alone.  He  has  made  most 
correct  distinction  between  the  inductive  and  the  logical  ;  and  it 
is  by  attending  to  the  l'espective  provinces  of  each,  that  we  come 
to  perceive  the  incompetency  of  mere  logic  for  the  purpose  of 
discovery  strictly  so  called.  The  whole  chapter  on  discovery  is 
particularly  valuable — leading  us  clearly  to  discriminate  between 
that  which  logic  can,  and  that  which  it  cannot  achieve.  It  is 
an  instrument,  not  for  the  discovery  of  truth  properly  new,  but 
for  the  discovery  of  truths  which  are  enveloped  or  virtually 
contained  in  propositions  already  known.  It  instructs  but  does 
not  inform  ;  and  has  nought  to  do  in  syllogism  with  the  truth 
of  the  premises,  but  only  with  the  truth  of  the  connexion  between 
the  premises  and  the  conclusion. 


174     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

the  proposition  that  self-preservation  is  the  strongest 
and  most  general  law  of  our  nature,  and  the  pro- 
position that  no  man  will  starve  if  able  and  in  cir- 
cumstances to  work  for  his  own  maintenance — that 
the  one  proposition  can  be  deduced  by  inference 
from  the  other,  as  the  conclusion  from  the  premises 
of  an  argument.  And  still  more  there  is  such  a 
dependence  between  the  proposition,  that  the 
planet  moves  in  an  elliptical  orbit  round  the  sun, 
having  its  focus  in  the  centre  of  that  luminary, 
and  a  thousand  other  propositions — so  that  without 
a  separate  observation  for  each  of  the  latter,  they 
can  be  reasoned  from  the  former ;  just  as  an  infinity 
of  truths  and  properties  can,  without  observation, 
be  satisfactorily  demonstrated  of  many  a  curve 
from  the  simple  definition  of  it.  We  do  not  affirm, 
that,  in  any  case,  we  can  establish  a  dogma,  or 
make  a  discovery  independently  of  all  observation 
— any  more  than  in  a  syllogism  we  are  independent 
of  observation  for  the  truth  of  the  premises — both 
the  major  and  the  minor  propositions  being  generally 
verified  in  this  way  ;  while  the  connexion  between 
these  and  the  conclusion,  is  all,  in  the  syllogism, 
wherewith  the  art  of  logic  has  properly  to  do.  In 
none  of  the  sciences,  is  the  logic  of  itself  available 
for  the  purposes  of  discovery ;  and  it  can  only 
contribute  to  this  object,  when  furnished  with  sound 
data,  the  accuracy  of  which  is  determined  by 
observation  alone.  This  holds  particularly  true  of 
the  mixed  mathematics,  where  the  conclusions  are 
sound,  only  in  as  far  as  the  first  premises  are  sound 
— which  premises,  in  like  manner,  are  not  reasoned 
truths,  but  observed  truths.      Even  in  the  pure 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  175 

mathematics,  some  obscurely  initial  or  rudimental 
process  of  observation  may  have  been  necessary, 
ere  the  mind  could  arrive  at  its  first  conceptions, 
either  of  quantity  or  number.      Certain  it  is,  how- 
ever, that,  in  all  the  sciences,  however  dependent 
on  observation  for  the  original  data,  we  can,  by 
reasoning   on   the    data,    establish    an    indefinite 
number  of  distinct  and  important  and  useful  pro- 
positions— which,  if  soundly  made  out,  observation 
will  afterwards  verify ;  but  which,  anterior  to  the 
application   of  this   test,    the   mind,   by   its   own 
excogitations,  may  have  made  the  objects  of  its 
most  legitimate  conviction.     It  is  thus  that,  on  the 
one  hand,  we,  by  the  inferences  of  a  sound  logic, 
can,  on  an  infinity  of  subjects,  discover  what  should 
for  ever  have  remained  unknown,  had  it  been  left 
to  the  findings  of  direct  observation ;  and  that,  on 
the  other  hand,  though  observation  could  not  have 
made   the   discovery,  it   never  fails   to  attest  it. 
Visionaries,  on  the  one  hand,  may  spurn  at  the 
ignoble  patience  and  drudgery  of  observers;  and 
ignorant   practitioners,  whether   in   the  walks   of 
business  or  legislation,  may,  on  the  other,  raise 
their  senseless  and  indiscriminate  outcry  against 
the  reasoners — but  he  who  knows  to  distinguish 
between  an  hypothesis  based  on  imagination,  and 
a  theory  based  on  experience,  and  perceives  how 
helpless  either  reason  or  observation  is,  when  not 
assisted  by  the  other,  will  know  how  to  assign  the 
parts,  and  to  estimate  the  prerogatives  of  both. 

23.  When  the  mind  has  retired  from  direct 
converge  with  the  external  world,  and  brought  to 
its  own  inner  chamber  of  thought  the  materials 


176     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

which  it  has  collected  there,  it  then  delivers  itself 
up  to  its  own  processes— first  ascending  analytically 
from  observed  phenomena  to  principles,  and  then 
descending  synthetically  from  principles  to  yet 
unobserved  phenomena.  We  cannot  but  recognise 
it  as  an  exquisite  adaptation  between  the  subjective 
and  the  objective,  between  the  mental  and  the 
material  systems — that  the  results  of  the  abstract 
intellectual  process  and  the  realities  of  external 
nature  should  so  strikingly  harmonize.*  It  is 
exemplified  in  all  the  sciences,  in  the  economical, 
and  the  mental,  and  the  physical,  and  most  of  all 
in  the  physico-mathematical — as  when  Newton,  on 

*  There  are  some  fine  remark*  by  Sir  John  Herschel  in  his 
preliminary  discourse  on  the  study  of  Natural  Philosophy  on  this 
adaptation  of  the  abstract  ideas  to  the  concrete  realities,  of  the 
discoveries  made  in  the  region  of  pure  thought  to  the  facts  and 
phenomena  of  actual  nature — as  when  the  properties  of  conic 
sections,  demonstrated  by  a  laborious  analysis,  remained  inappli- 
cable till  they  came  to  be  embodied  in  the  real  masses  and  move- 
ments of  astronomy. 

"  These  marvellous  computations  might  almost  seem  to  have 
been  devised  on  purpose  to  show  how  closely  the  extremes  of 
speculative  refinement  and  practical  utility  can  be  brought  to 
approximate."     Herschel's  Discourse,  p.  28. 

•*  They  show  how  large  a  part  pure  reason  has  to  perform  in  th© 
examination  of  nature,  and  how  implicit  our  reliance  ought  to  be 
on  that  powerful  and  methodical  system  of  rules  and  processes, 
■which  constitute  the  modern  mathematical  analysis,  in  all  the 
more  difficult  applications  of  exact  calculation  to  her  phenomena." 
p.  33. 

"  Almost  all  the  great  combinations  of  modern  mechanism  and 
many  of  its  refinements  and  nicer  improvements,  are  creations  of 
pure  intellect,  grounding  its  exertion  upon  a  very  moderate  number 
of  elementary  propositions,  in  theoretical  mechanics  and  geo- 
metry." p.  63. 

The  discovery  of  the  principle  of  the  achromatic  telescope,  is 
termed  by  Sir  John  "  a  memorable  case  in  science,  though  not 
a  singular  one,  where  the  speculative  geometer  in  his  chamber, 
apart  from  the  world,  and  existing  among  abstractions,  has 
originated  views  of  the  noblest  practical  application."  p.  255. 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  177 

the  calculations  and  profound  musings  of  his  soli- 
tude, predicted  the  oblate  spheroidal  figure  of  the 
earth,  and  the  prediction  was  confirmed  by  the 
mensurations  of  the  academicians,  both  in  the  polar 
and  equatorial  regions;  or  as,  when  abandoning 
himself  to  the  devices  and  the  diagrams  of  his  own 
construction,  he  thence  scanned  the  cycles  of  the 
firmament,  and  elicited  from  the  scroll  of  enig- 
matical characters  which  himself  had  framed,  the 
secrets  of  a  sublime  astronomy,  that  high  field  so 
replete  with  wonders,  yet  surpassed  by  this  greatest 
wonder  of  all,  the  intellectual  mastery  which  man 
has  over  it.  That  such  a  feeble  creature  should 
have  made  this  conquest — that  a  light  struck  out 
in  the  little  cell  of  his  own  cogitations  should  have 
led  to  a  disclosure  so  magnificent — that  by  a  cal- 
culus of  his  own  formation,  as  with  the  power  of  a 
talisman,  the  heavens,  with  their  stupendous  masses 
and  untrodden  distances,  should  have  thus  been 
opened  to  his  gaze — can  only  be  explained  by  the 
intervention  of  a  Being  having  supremacy  over  all, 
and  who  has  adjusted  the  laws  of  matter  and  the 
properties  of  mind  to  each  other.  It  is  only  thus 
we  can  be  made  to  understand,  how  man  by  the 
mere  workings  of  his  spirit,  should  have  penetrated 
so  far  into  the  workmanship  of  Nature ;  or  that, 
restricted  though  he  be  to  a  spot  of  earth,  he 
should  nevertheless  tell  of  the  suns  and  the  systems 
that  be  afar — as  if  he  had  travelled  with  the  line 
and  plummet  in  his  hand  to  the  outskirts  of  creation, 
or  carried  the  torch  of  discovery  round  the  universe. 
24.  (3.)  Our  next  adaptation  is  most  notably 
exemplified  in  those  cases,  when  some  isolated  phe- 
H  2 


178    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

nomenon,  remote  and  having  at  first  no  conceivable 
relation  to  human  affairs,  is  nevertheless  converted 
by  the  plastic  and  productive  intellect  of  man,  into 
some  application  of  mighty  and  important  effect 
on  the  interests  of  the  world.  One  example  of 
this  is  the  use  that  has  been  made  of  the  occulta- 
tions  and  emersions  of  Jupiter's  satellites,  in  the 
computation  of  longitudes,  and  so  the  perfecting 
of  navigation.  When  one  contemplates  a  subser- 
viency of  this  sort  fetched  to  us  from  afar,  it  is 
difficult  not  to  imagine  of  it  as  being  the  fruit  of 
some  special  adjustment,  that  came  within  the 
purpose  of  him,  who,  in  constructing  the  vast 
mechanism  of  Nature,  overlooked  not  the  humblest 
of  its  parts — but  incorporated  the  good  of  our 
species,  with  the  wider  generalities  and  laws  of  a 
universal  system.*      The  conclusion  is  rather  en- 


*  The  author  of  the  Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm,  in  his 
edition  of  Edward's  treatise  on  the  will,  presents  us  with  the  fol- 
lowing energetic  sentences  on  this  subject. 

'*  Every  branch  of  modern  science  abounds  with  instances  of 
remote  correspondences  between  the  great  system  of  the  world, 
and  the  artificial  {the  truly  natural)  condition  to  which  knowledge 
raises  him.  If  these  correspondences  were  single  or  rare  they 
might  be  deemed  merely  fortuitous ;  like  the  drifting  of  a  plank 
athwart  the  track  of  one  who  is  swimming  from  a  wreck.  But 
when  they  meet  us  on  all  sides  and  invariably,  we  must  be  resolute 
in  atheism  not  to  confess  that  they  are  emanations  from  one  and 
the  same  centre  of  wisdom  and  goodness.  Is  it  nothing  more  than 
a  lucky  accoinmodation  which  makes  the  polarity  of  the  needle  to 
subserve  the  purposes  of  the  mariner  ?  or  may  it  not  safely  be 
affirmed,  both  that  the  magnetic  influence  (whatever  its  primary 
intention  may  be)  had  reference  to  the  business  of  navigation — a 
reference  incalculably  important  to  the  spread  and  improvement  of 
the  human  race  ;  and  that  the  discovery  and  the  application  of  this 
influence  arrived  at  the  destined  moment  in  the  revolution  of 
human  affairs,  when  in  combination  with  other  events,  it  would 
produce  the  greatest  effect?  Nor  should  we  scruple  to  affirm  that 
the  relation  between  the  inclination  of  the  earth's  axis  and  the 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  179 

naneed  than  otherwise  by  the  seemingly  incidental 
way  in  which  the  telescope  was  discovered.  The 
observation  of  the  polarity  of  the  magnet  is  an  exam- 
ple of  the  same  kind — and  with  the  same  result,  in 
multiplying,  by  an  enlarged  commerce  the  enjoy- 
ments of  life,  and  speeding  onward  the  science  and 
civilization  of  the  globe.  There  cannot  a  purer 
instance  be  given,  of  adaptation  between  external 
nature  and  the  mind  of  man — than  when  some 
material,  that  would  have  remained  for  ever  useless 
in  the  hands  of  the  unintelligent  and  unthoughtful, 
is  converted,  by  the  fertility  and  power  of  the 
human  understanding,  into  an  instrument  for  the 

conspicuous  star  which,  without  a  near  rival,  attracts  even  the  eye 
of  the  vulgar,  and  shows  the  north  to  the  wanderer  on  the  wilder- 
ness or  on  the  ocean,  is  in  like  manner  a  beneficent  arrangement. 
Those  who  would  spurn  the  supposition  that  the  celestial  locality 
of  a  sun  immeasurably  remote  from  our  system,  should  have 
reference  to  the  accommodation  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  planet  so 
inconsiderahle  as  our  own,  forget  the  style  of  the  Divine  Works, 
which  is,  to  serve  some  great  or  principal  end,  compatibly  with  ten 
thousand  lesser  and  remote  interests.  Man  if  he  would  secure  the 
greater,  must  neglect  or  sacrifice  the  less ;  not  so  the  Omnipotent 
Contriver.  It  is  a  fact  full  of  meaning,  that  those  astronomical 
phenomena  (and  so  others)  which  offer  themselves  as  available  for 
the  purposes  of  art,  as  for  instance  of  navigation,  or  geography, 
do  not  fully  or  effectively  yield  the  end  they  promise,  until  after 
long  and  elaborate  processes  of  calculation  have  disentangled  them 
from  variations,  disturbing  forces  and  apparent  irregularities. 
To  the  rude  fact,  if  so  we  might  designate  it,  a  mass  of  recondite 
science  must  be  appended,  before  it  can  be  brought  to  bear  with, 
precision  upon  the  arts  of  life.  Thus  the  polarity  of  the  needle  or 
the  eclipses  of  Jupiter's  moons  are  as  nothing  to  the  mariner,  or 
the  geographer,  without  the  voluminous  commentary  furnished  by 
the  mathematics  of  astronomy.  The  fact  of  the  expansive  force 
of  steam  must  employ  the  intelligence  and  energy  of  the  me- 
chanicians of  an  empire,  during  a  century,  before  the  whole  of  its 
beneficial  powers  can  be  put  in  activity.  Chemical,  medical,  and 
botanical  science  is  filled  with  parallel  instances  ;  and  they  all 
affirm,  in  an  articulate  manner,  the  two-fold  purpose  of  the 
Creator — to  benefit  man  and  to  educate  him. 


180  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

further  extension  of  our  knowledge  or  our  means 
of  gratification.  The  prolongation  of  their  eyesight 
to  the  aged  by  means  of  convex  lenses,  made  from 
a  substance  at  once  transparent  and  colourless — 
the  force  of  steam  with  the  manifold  and  ever- 
growing applications  which  are  made  of  it — the  dis- 
covery of  platina,  which,  by  its  resistance  to  the 
fiercest  heats,  is  so  available  in  prosecuting  the 
ulterior  researches  of  chemistry* — even  the  very 
abundance  and  portability  of  those  materials  by 
which  written  characters  can  be  multiplied,  and, 
through  the  impulse  thus  given  to  the  quick  and 
copious  circulation  of  human  thoughts,  mind  acts 
with  rapid  diffusion  upon  mind  though  at  the  dis- 
tance of  a  hemisphere  from  each  other,  conceptions 
and  informations  and  reasonings  these  products  of 
the  intellect  alone  being  made  to  travel  over  the 
world  by  the  intervention  of  material  substances — . 
these,  while  but  themselves  only  a  few  taken  at 
random  from  the  multitude  of  strictly  appropriate 
specimens  which  could  be  alleged  of  an  adaptation 
between  the  systems  of  mind  and  matter,  are  suf- 


*  "  This  among  many  such,  lessons  will  teach  us  that  the  most 
important  uses  of  natural  objects  are  not  those  which  offer  them- 
selves'to  us  most  obviously.  The  chief  use  of  the  moon  for  man's 
immediate  purposes  remained  unknown  to  him  for  five  thousand 
years  from  his  creation.  And  since  it  cannot  but  be  that  innu- 
merable and  most  important  uses  remain  to  be  discovered  among 
the  materials  and  objects  already  known  to  us,  as  well  as  among 
those  which  the  progress  of  science  must  hereafter  disclose,  we 
may  here  conceive  a  well  grounded  expectation,  not  only  of  con- 
stant increase  in  the  physical  resources  of  mankind,  and  the  con- 
sequent improvement  of  their  condition,  but  of  continual  acce9«» 
ftions  to  our  power  of  penetrating  into  the  arcana  of  nature,  and 
becoming  acquainted  with  her  highest  laws."  Sir  John  Herschel'a 
Discourse,  p.  306,  309. 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  181 

ficient  to  mark  an  obvious  contrivance  and  forth  - 
putting  of  skill  in  the  adjustment  of  the  systems  to 
each  other.  Enough  has  been  already  done  to 
prove  of  mind,  with  its  various  powers,  that  it  is 
the  fittest  agent  which  could  have  been  employed 
for  working  upon  matter  ;  and  of  matter,  with  its 
various  properties  and  combinations,  that  it  is  the 
fittest  instrument  which  could  have  been  placed 
under  the  disposal  of  mind.  Every  new  triumph 
achieved  by  the  human  intellect  over  external 
nature,  whether  in  the  way  of  discovery  or  of  art, 
serves  to  make  the  proof  more  illustrious.  In  the 
indefinite  progress  of  science  and  invention,  the 
mastery  of  man  over  the  elements  which  surround 
him  is  every  year  becoming  more  conspicuous — 
the  pure  result  of  adaptation,  or  of  the  way  in 
which  mind  and  matter  have  been  conformed  to 
each  other ;  the  first  endowed  by  the  Creator  with 
those  powers  which  qualify  it  to  command;  the 
second  no  less  evidently  endowed  with  those  cor- 
responding susceptibilities  which  cause  it  to  obey. 
25.  (4.)  To  prepare  for  our  next  instance,  there 
is  one  especial  adaptation  that  we  shall  now  bring 
forward,  and  all  the  more  willingly  that,  beside  being 
highly  important  in  itself,  it  forms  an  instance  of 
adaptation  in  the  pure  and  limited  sense  of  the 
term — even  the  influence  of  a  circumstance  strictly 
material  on  the  state  of  the  moral  world  in  all  the 
civilized,  and  indeed  in  all  the  appropriated  countries 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  We  advert  to  the  actual 
fertility  of  the  land,  and  to  the  circumstances  purely 
physical  by  which  the  degree  or  measure  of  that 
fertility  is  determined.      It  has  been  well  stated 


182  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

by  some  of  the  expounders  of  geological  science, 
that,  while  the  vegetable  mould  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face is  subject  to  perpetual  waste,  from  the  action 
both  of  the  winds  and  of  the  waters,  either  blow- 
ing it  away  in  dust,  or  washing  it  down  in  rivers  to 
the  ocean — the  loss  thus  sustained,  is  nevertheless 
perpetually  repaired  by  the  operation  of  the  same 
material  agents  on  the  uplands  of  the  territory— 
whence  the  dust  and  the  debris,  produced  by  a  dis- 
integration that  is  constantly  going  on  even  in  the 
hardest  rocks,  is  either  strewed  by  the  atmosphere,  or 
carried  down  in  an  enriching  sediment  by  mountain 
streams  to  the  lands  which  are  beneath  them.  It 
has  been  rightly  argued,  as  the  evidence  and  exam- 
ple of  a  benevolent  design,  that  the  opposite  causes 
of  consumption  and  of  supply  are  so  adjusted  to 
each  other,  as  to  have  ensured  the  perpetuity  of 
our  soils.*      But  even  though  these  counteracting 

*  "  It  is  highly  interesting  to  trace  up,  in  this  manner,  the 
action  of  causes  with  which  we  are  familiar,  to  the  production  of 
effects,  which  at  first  seem  to  require  the  introduction  of  unknown 
and  extraordinary  powers  ;  and  it  is  no  less  interesting  to  ohserve, 
how  skilfully  nature  has  balanced  the  action  of  all  the  minute 
causes  of  waste,  and  rendered  them  conducive  to  the  general  good. 
Of  this  we  have  a  most  remarkable  instance,  in  the  provision  made 
for  preserving  the  soil,  or  the  coat  of  vegetable  mould,  spread  out 
over  the  surface  of  the  earth.  This  coat,  as  it  consists  of  loose 
materials,  is  easily  washed  away  by  the  rains,  and  is  continually 
carried  down  by  the  rivers  into  the  sea.  This  effect  is  visible 
to  every  one  ;  the  earth  is  removed  not  only  in  the  form  of  sand 
and  gravel,  but  its  finer  particles  suspended  in  the  waters,  tinge 
those  of  some  rivers  continually,  and  those  of  all  occasionally, 
that  is,  when  they  are  flooded  or  swollen  with  rains.  The  quantity 
of  earth  thus  carried  down,  varies  according  to  circumstances  ;  it 
has  been  computed  in  some  instances,  that  the  water  of  a  river  in 
a  flood,  contains  earthy  matter  suspended  in  it,  amounting  to  more 
than  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  part  of  its  own  bulk.  The  h/iI 
therefore,  is  continually  diminished,  its  parts  being  delivered  from 
higher  to  lower  levels,  and  finally  delivered  into  the  sea.     But  it 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  183 

forces  had  been  somewhat  differently  balanced ; 
though  the  wasting  operation  had  remained  as  active 
and  as  powerful,  while  a  more  difficult  pulveriza- 
tion of  the  rocks  had  made  the  restorative  operation 
slower  and  feebler  than  before — still  we  might  have 
had  our  permanent  or  stationary  soils,  but  only  all 
of  less  fertility  than  that  in  which  we  now  find 
them.  A  somewhat  different  constitution  of  the 
rocks ;  or  a  somewhat  altered  proportion  in  the 
forces  of  that  machinery  which  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  them — in  the  cohesion  that  withstands,  or  in 
the  impulse  and  the  atmospherical  depositions  and 
the  grinding  frosts  and  the  undermining  torrents 
that  separate  and  carry  off  the  materials — a  slight 
change  in  one  or  all  of  these  causes,  might  have 
let  down  each  of  the  various  soils  on  the  face  of 
the  wrorld  to  a  lower  point  in  the  scale  of  produc- 
tiveness than  at  present  belongs  to  them.  And 
when  we  think  of  the  mighty  bearing  which  the 
determination  of  this  single  element  has  on  the 
state  and  interests  of  human  society,  we  cannot 
resist  the  conclusion  that,  depending  as  it  does  on 


is  a  fact,  that  the  soil,  notwithstanding,  remains  the  same  in 
quantity,  or  at  least  nearly  the  same,  and  must  have  done  so, 
•ver  since  the  earth  was  the  receptacle  of  animal  or  vegetable  life. 
The  soil  therefore  is  augmented  from  other  causes,  just  as  much 
at  an  average,  as  it  is  diminished  by  those  now  mentioned  ;  and 
this  augmentation  evidently  can  proceed  from  nothing  but  the 
constant  and  slow  disentegration  of  the  rocks.  In  the  permanence, 
therefore,  of  a  coat  of  vegetable  mould  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  we  have  a  demonstrative  proof  of  the  continual  destruction 
of  the  rocks  ;  and  cannot  but  admire  the  skill,  with  which  the 
powers  of  the  many  chemical  and  mechanical  agents  employed  in 
this  complicated  work,  are  so  adjusted,  as  to  make  the  supply  and 
the  waste  of  the  soil  exactly  equal  to  one  another." — Playfair's 
Illustrations  of  the  Huttonian  Theorv.     Section  III.  Art.  13. 


184  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

so  many  influences,  there  has,  in  the  assortment  ol 
these,  been  a  studied  adaptation  of  the  material 
and  the  mental  worlds  to  each  other.     For  only 
let  us  consider  the  effect,  had  the   fertility  been 
brought  so  low,  as  that  on  the  best  of  soils,  the 
produce  extracted  by  the  most  strenuous    efforts 
of  human  toil,  could  no  more  than  repay  the  cul- 
tivation bestowed  on  them — or  that  the  food,  thus 
laboriously   raised,  would   barely    suffice    for   the 
maintenance  of  the  labourers.      It  is  obvious  that 
a  fertility  beneath  this  point  would  have  kept  the 
whole  earth  in  a   state    of  perpetual   barrenness 
and  desolation — when,  though  performing  as  now 
its  astronomical  circuit  in  the  heavens,  it  would  have 
been  a  planet  bereft  of  life,  or  at  least  unfit  for  the 
abode  and  sustenance  of  the  rational  generations 
by  whom  it  is  at  present  occupied.      But   even 
with  a  fertility  at  this  point,  although  a  race  of 
men   might   have   been   upholden,  the  tenure  by 
which  each  man  held  his  existence  behoved  to  have 
been  a  life  of  unremitting  drudgery ;  and  we  should 
have  beheld  the  whole  species  engaged  in  a  con- 
stant struggle  of  penury  and  pain  for  the  supply 
of  their  animal  necessities.     And  it  is  because  of  a 
fertility  above  this  point,  the  actual  fertility  of  vast 
portions  of  land  in  most  countries  of  the  earth — 
that  many  and  extensive  are  the  soils  which  yield 
a  large  surplus  produce,  over  and  above  the  main- 
tenance of  all,  who  are  engaged,  whether  directly 
or  indirectly,  in  the  work  of  their  cultivation.    The 
.strength  of  the   possessory  feelings   on   the   one 
nana,  giving  rise  to  possessory  rights  recognised 
and  acquiesced  in  by  all  men ;  these  rights  invest- 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  185 

ing  a  single  individual  with  the  ownership  of  lands, 
that  yield  on  the  other  hand  a  surplus  produce,  over 
which  he  has  the  uncontrolled  disposal — make  up 
together,  such  a  constitution  of  the  moral,  combined 
with  such  a  constitution  of  the  material  system,  as 
demonstrates  that  the  gradation  of  wealth  in  human 
society  has  its  deep  and  its  lasting  foundation  in 
the  nature  of  things. 

26.  (5.)  The  way  is  now  prepared  for  our  next 
adaptation,  which  hinges  upon  this — that  the  high- 
est efforts  of  intellectual  power,  and  to  which  few 
men  are  competent,  the  most  difficult  intellectual 
processes,  requiring  the  utmost  abstraction  and 
leisure  for  their  development,  are  often  indispensa- 
ble to  discoveries,  which,  when  once  made,  are  found 
capable  of  those  useful  applications,  the  value  of 
which  is  felt  and  recognised  by  all  men.  The  most 
arduous  mathematics  had  to  be  put  into  requisition, 
for  the  establishment  of  the  lunar  theory — without 
which  our  present  lunar  observations  could  have 
been  of  no  use  for  the  determination  of  the  longi- 
tude. This  dependence  of  the  popular  and  the 
practical  on  an  anterior  profound  science  runs 
through  much  of  the  business  of  life,  in  the  me- 
chanics and  chemistry  of  manufactures  as  well 
as  in  navigation  ;  and  indeed  is  more  or  less  exem- 
plified so  widely,  or  rather  universally,  throughout 
the  various  departments  of  human  industry  and 
art,  that  it  most  essentially  contributes  to  the  ascen- 
dancy of  mind  over  muscular  force  in  society — 
besides  securing  for  mental  qualities,  the  willing 
and  reverential  homage  of  the  multitude.  This 
peculiar  influence  stands   complicated  with  other 


186    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

arrangements,  requiring  a  multifarious  combina- 
tion, that  speaks  all  the  more  emphatically  for  a 
presiding  intellect,  which  must  have  devised  and 
calculated  the  whole.  We  have  already  stated,  by 
what  peculiarity  in  the  soil  it  was,  that  a  certain 
number  of  the  species  was  exempted  from  the 
necessity  of  labour  ;  and  without  which,  in  fact,  all 
science  and  civilization  would  have  been  impos- 
sible. We  have  also  expounded  in  some  degree 
the .  principle,  which  both  originated  the  existing 
arrangements  of  property,  and  led  men  to  acquiesce 
in  them.  But  still  it  is  a  precarious  acquiescence, 
and  liable  to  be  disturbed  Vjy  many  operating  causes 
of  distress  and  discontent  in  society.  If  there  be 
influences  on  the  side  of  the  established  order  of 
things,  there  are  also  counteractive  influences  on 
the  opposite  side,  of  revolt  and  irritation  against  it ; 
and  by  which,  the  natural  reverence  of  men  for 
rank  and  station  may  at  length  be  overborne.  In 
the  progress  of  want  and  demoralization  among  the 
people ;  in  the  pressure  of  their  increasing  numbers, 
by  which  they  at  once  outgrow  the  means  of  instruc- 
tion, and  bear  more  heavily  on  the  resources  of  the 
land  than  before;  in  the  felt  straitness  of  their 
condition,  and  the  proportionate  vehemence  of  their 
aspirations  after  enlargement — nothing  is  easier 
than  to  give  them  a  factitious  sense  of  their  wrongs, 
and  to  inspire  them  with  the  rankling  imagination 
of  a  heartless  and  haughty  indifference  on  the  part 
of  their  lordly  superiors  towards  them,  whose  very 
occupation  of  wealth,  they  may  be  taught  to  regard 
as  a  monopoly,  the  breaking  down  of  which  were 
an   act   of  generous   patriotism.      Against   these 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  187 

brooding  elements  of  revolution  in  the  popular 
mind,  the  most  effectual  preservative  certainly,  were 
the  virtue  of  the  upper  classes, — or  that  our  great 
men  should  be  good  men.  But  a  mighty  help  to 
this,  and  next  to  it  in  importance,  were,  that  to  the 
power  which  lies  in  wealth,  they  should  superadd 
the  power  which  lies  in  knowledge — or  that  the  vul- 
gar superiority  of  mere  affluence  and  station,  should 
be  strengthened  in  a  way  that  would  command  the 
willing  homage  of  all  spirits,  that  is,  by  the  mental 
superiority  which  their  opportunities  of  lengthened 
and  laborious  education  enable  them  to  acquire. 
By  a  wise  ordination  of  Nature,  the  possessors  of 
rank  and  fortune,  simply  as  such,  have  a  certain 
ascendant  power  over  their  fellows ;  and,  by  the 
same  ordination,  the  possessors  of  learning  have  an 
ascendancy  also — and  it  would  mightily  conduce  to 
the  strength  and  stability  of  the  commonwealth,  if 
these  influences  were  conjoined  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
if  the  scale  of  wealth  and  the  scale  of  intelligence, 
in  as  far  as  that  was  dependent  on  literary  culture, 
could  be  made  to  harmonize.  The  constitution  of 
science,  or  the  adaptation  which  obtains  between 
the  objects  of  knowledge  and  the  knowing  faculties, 
is  singularly  favourable  to  the  alliance  for  which  we 
now  plead — insomuch  that,  to  sound  the  depths  of 
philosophy,  time  and  independence  and  exemption 
from  the  cares  and  labours  of  ordinary  life  seem 
indispensable ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  profound 
discoveries,  or  a  profound  acquaintance  with  them, 
are  sure  to  command  a  ready  deference  even  from 
the  multitude,  whether  on  account  of  the  natural 
respect  which  all  men  feel  for  pre-eminent  under- 


188    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

standing,  or  on  account  of  the  palpable  utilities  to 
which,  in  a  system  of  things  so  connected  as  ours, 
even  the  loftiest  and  most  recondite  science  is  found 
to  be  subservient.  On  the  same  principle  that,  in 
a  ship,  the  skilful  navigation  of  its  captain,  will 
secure  for  him  the  prompt  obedience  of  the  crew 
to  all  his  directions  ;*  or  that,  in  an  army,  the  con- 
summate generalship  of  its  commander  will  subor- 

*  "  We  have  before  us  an  anecdote  communicated  to  us  by  a 
naval  officer,  (Captain  Basil  Hall,)  distinguished  for  the  extent 
and  variety  of  his  attainments,  which  shows  how  impressive  such 
results  may  become  in  practice.  He  sailed  from  San  Bias  on 
the  west  coast  of  Mexico,  and,  after  a  voyage  of  8000  miles, 
occupying  eighty-nine  days,  arrived  off  Rio  Janeiro,  having  in 
this  interval  passed  through  the  Pacific  Ocean,  rounded  Cape 
Horn,  and  crossed  the  South  Atlantic,  without  making  land,  or 
even  seeing  a  single  sail,  with  the  exception  of  an  American 
whaler  off  Cape  Horn.  Arrived  within  a  week's  sail  of  Rio, 
he  set  seriously  about  determining,  by  lunar  observations,  the 
precise  line  of  the  ship's  course,  and  its  situation  in  it  at  a  deter- 
minate moment,  and  having  ascertained  this  within  from  five  to 
ten  miles,  ran  the  rest  of  the  way  by  those  more  ready  and 
compendious  methods,  known  to  navigators,  which  can  be  safely 
employed  for  short  trips  between  one  known  point  and  another, 
but  which  cannot  be. trusted  in  long  voyages,  where  the  moon 
is  their  only  guide.  The  rest  of  the  tale  we  are  enabled  by  his 
kindness  to  state  in  his  own  words  : — 'We  steei*ed  towards  Rio 
Janeiro  for  some  days  after  taking  the  lunars  above  described, 
and  having  arrived  within  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  of  the  coast, 
I  hove-to  till  four  in  the  morning,  when  the  day  should  break, 
and  then  bore  up  ;  for  although  it  was  very  hazy,  we  could  see 
before  us  a  couple  of  miles  or  so.  About  eight  o'clock  it  became 
so  foggy  that  I  did  not  like  to  stand  in  farther,  and  was  just 
bringing  the  ship  to  the  wind  again  before  sending  the  people  to 
breakfast,  when  it  suddenly  cleared  off,  and  I  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  the  great  sugar-loaf  peak,  which  stands  on  one  side  of 
the  harbour's  mouth,  so  nearly  right  a-head  that  we  had  not  to 
alter  our  course  above  a  point,  in  order  to  hit  the  entrance  of 
Rio.  This  was  the  first  land  we  had  seen  for  three  months, 
after  crossing  so  many  seas,  and  being  set  backwards  and  forwards 
by  innumerable  currents  and  foul  winds.'  The  effect  on  all  on 
board  might  well  be  conceived  to  have  been  electric  ;  and  it  is 
needless  to  remark  how  essentially  the  authority  of  a  commanding 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  189 

dinate  all  the  movements  of  the  immense  host,  to 

the  power  of  one  controlling  and  actuating  will 

so,  in  general  society,  did  wealth,  by  means  of  a 
thorough  scholarship  on  the  part  of  the  highei 
classes,  but  maintain  an  intimate  fellowship  with 
wisdom  and  sound  philosophy — then,  with  the  same 
conservative  influence  as  in  these  other  examples, 
would  the  intellectual  ascendancy  thus  acquired,  be 
found  of  mighty  effect,  to  consolidate  and  maintain 
all  the  gradations  of  the  commonwealth. 

27.  It  is  thus  that  a  vain  and  frivolous  aristo- 
cracy, averse  to  severe  intellectual  discipline,  and 
beset  with  the  narrow  prejudices  of  an  order,  let 
themselves  down  from  that  high  vantage-ground 
on  which  fortune  hath  placed  them — where,  by  a 
right  use  of  the  capabilities  belonging  to  the  state 
in  which  they  were  born,  they  might  have  kept 
their  firm  footing  to  the  latest  generations.  Did 
all  truth  lie  at  the  surface  of  observation,  and  was 
it  alike  accessible  to  all  men,  they  could  not  with 
such  an  adaptation  of  external  nature  to  man's 
intellectual  constitution,  have  realized  the  peculiar 
advantage  on  which  we  are  now  insisting.  But  it 
is  because  there  is  so  much  of  important  and 
applicable  truth,  which  lies  deep  and  hidden  under 
the  surface,  and  which  can  only  be  appropriated 
by  men  who  combine  unbounded  leisure  with  the 


officer  over  his  crew  may  be  strengthened  by  the  occurrence  of  such 
incidents,  indicative  of  a  degree  of  knowledge  and  consequent 
power  beyond  their  reach." — HerscheVs  Discourse,  p.  28,  29. 

It  is  an  extreme  instance  of  the  connexion  between  mental 
power  and  civil  or  political  ascendancy,  though  often  verified  in 
the  history  of  the  world — that  military  science  has  often  led  to 
the  establishment  of  a  military  despotism. 


190     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

habit  or  determination  of  strenuous  mental  effort — 
it  is  only  because  of  such  an  adaptation,  that  they 
who  are  gifted  with  property  are,  as  a  class,  gifted 
with  the  means,  if  they  would  use  it,  of  a  great 
intellectual  superiority  over  the  rest  of  the  species. 
There  is  a  strong  natural  veneration  for  wealth, 
and  also  a  strong  natural  veneration  for  wisdom. 
It  is  by  the  union  of  the  two  that  the  horrors  of 
revolutionary  violence  might  for  ever  be  averted 
from  the  land.  Did  our  high-born  children  of 
affluence,  for  every  ten  among  them,  the  mere 
loungers  of  effeminacy  and  fashion,  or  the  mere 
lovers  of  sport  and  sensuality  and  splendour — did 
they,  for  every  ten  of  such,  furnish  but  one  ena- 
moured of  higher  gymnastics,  the  gymnastics  of 
the  mind ;  and  who  accomplished  himself  for  the 
work  and  warfare  of  the  senate,  by  his  deep  and 
comprehensive  views  in  all  the  proper  sciences  of 
a  statesman,  the  science  of  government,  and  politics, 
and  commerce,  and  economics,  and  history,  and 
human  nature — by  a  few  gigantic  men  among 
them,  thus  girded  for  the  services  of  patriotism,  a 
nation  might  be  saved — because  arrested  on  that 
headlong  descent,  which,  at  the  impulse  of  the 
popular  will,  it  might  else  have  made,  from  one 
measure  of  fair  but  treacherous  promise,  from  one 
ruinous  plausibility  to  another.  The  thing  most 
to  be  dreaded,  is  that  hasty  and  superficial  legisla- 
tion into  which  a  government  may  be  hurried  by 
the  successive  onsets  of  public  impatience,  and 
under  the  impulse  of  a  popular  and  prevailing  cry. 
Now  the  thing  most  needed,  is  a  counteractive  to 
this  evil,  is  a  thoroughly  intellectual  parliament, 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  191 

where  shall  predominate  that  masculine  sense 
which  has  been  trained  for  act  and  application  by 
masculine  studies ;  and  where  the  silly  watchword 
of  theory  shall  not  be  employed,  as  heretofore,  to 
overbear  the  lessons  of  soundly  generalized  truth 
— because,  instead  of  being  discerned  at  a  glance, 
they  are  fetched  from  the  depths  of  philosophic 
observation,  or  shone  upon  by  lights  from  afar,  in 
the  accumulated  experience  of  ages.  We  have  infi- 
nitely more  to  apprehend  from  the  demagogues  than 
from  the  doctrinaires  of  our  present  crisis ;  and  it 
will  require  a  far  profounder  attention  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  every  question  than  many  deem  to  be 
necessary,  or  than  almost  any  are  found  to  bestow, 
to  save  us  from  the  crudities  of  a  blindfold  legislation. 
28.  And  it  augurs  portentously  for  the  coming 
destinies  of  our  land,  that,  in  the  present  rage  for 
economy,  such  an  indiscriminate  havock  should 
have  been  made — so  that  pensions  and  endowments 
for  the  reward  or  encouragement  of  science,  should 
have  had  the  same  sentence  of  extinction  passed 
upon  them  as  the  most  worthless  sinecures.  The 
difficulties  of  our  most  sublime,  and  often  too  our 
most  useful  knowledge,  make  it  inaccessible  to  all 
but  to  those  who  are  exempt  from  the  care  of  their 
own  maintenance — so  that  unless  a  certain,  though 
truly  insignificant  portion  of  the  country's  wealth, 
be  expended  in  this  way,  all  high  and  transcend- 
ental philosophy,  however  conducive  as  it  often  is 
to  the  strength  as  well  as  glory  of  a  nation,  must 
vanish  from  the  land.  When  the  original  possessors 
of  wealth  neglect  individually  this  application  of  it ; 
and,  whether  from  indolence  or  the  love  of  pleasure. 


192    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

fall  short  of  that  superiority  in  mental  culture,  of 
which  the  means  have  been  put  into  their  hands — 
we  can  only  reproach  their  ignoble  preference,  and 
lament  the  ascendant  force  of  sordid  and  merely 
animal  propensities,  over  the  principles  of  their 
better  and  higher  nature.  But  when  that  which 
individuals  do  in  slavish  compliance  with  their 
indolence  and  passions,  the  state  is  also  found  to 
do  in  the  exercise  of  its  deliberate  wisdom,  and  on 
the  maxims  of  a  settled  policy — when,  instead  of 
ordaining  any  new  destination  of  wealth  in  favour 
of  science,  it  would  divorce  and  break  asunder  the 
goodly  alliance  by  a  remorseless  attack  on  the 
destinations  of  wiser  and  better  days — such  a  gothic 
spoliation  as  this,  not  a  deed  of  lawless  cupidity, 
but  the  mandate  of  a  senate-house,  were  a  still 
more  direct  and  glaring  contravention  to  the  wisdom 
of  Nature,  and  to  the  laws  of  that  economy  which 
Nature  hath  instituted.  The  adaptation  of  which 
we  now  speak,  between  the  external  system  of  the 
universe  and  the  intellectual  system  of  man,  were 
grossly  violated  by  such  an  outrage ;  and  it  is  a 
violence  which  nature  would  resent  by  one  of  those 
signal  chastisements,  the  examples  of  which  are  so 
frequent  in  history.  The  truth  is,  that,  viewed  as 
a  manifestation  of  the  popular  will  which  tumultu- 
ates  against  all  that  wont  to  command  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  society,  and  is  strong  enough  to 
enforce  its  dictations — it  may  well  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  deadliest  symptoms  of  a  nation  ripening 
for  anarchy,  that  dread  consummation  by  which, 
however,  the  social  state,  relieved  of  its  distempers, 
is  at  length  renovated  like  the  atmosphere  by  a 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  193 

storm,  after  throwing  off  from  it  the  dregs  and  the 
degeneracy  of  an  iron  age.* 

29.  (6.)  We  shall  do  little  more  than  state  two 
other  adaptations,  although  more  might  be  noticed, 
and  all  do  admit  of  a  much  fuller  elucidation  than 
we  can  bestow  upon  them.  And  first,  there  is  a 
countless  diversity  of  sciences,  and  correspondent  to 
this,  a  like  diversity  in  the  tastes  and  talents  of  men, 
presenting,  therefore,  a  most  beneficial  adaptation, 
between  the  objects  of  human  knowledge  and  the 
powers  of  human  knowledge.  Even  in  one  science 
there  are  often  many  subdivisions,  each  requiring 
a  separate  mental  fitness,  on  the  part  of  those  who 
might  select  it  as  their  own  favourite  walk,  which 
they  most  love,  and  in  which  they  are  best  qualified 
to  excel.  In  most  of  the  physical  sciences,  how 
distinct  the  business  of  the  observation  is  from  that 
of  the  philosophy;  and  how  important  to  their 
progress,  that,  for  each  appropriate  work,  there 
should  be  men  of  appropriate  faculties  or  habits, 
who,  in  the  execution  of  their  respective  tasks,  do 
exceedingly  multiply  and  enlarge  the  products  of 
the  mind — even  as  the  grosser  products  of  human 
industry  are  multiplied  by  the  subdivision  of 
employment^  It  is  well,  that,  for  that  infinite 
variety  of  intellectual  pursuits,  necessary  to  explore 

*  The  same  effect  is  still  more  likely  to  ensue  from  the  spolia- 
tion and  secularization  of  ecclesiastical  property. 

f  **  There  is  no  accounting  for  the  difference  of  minds  or  in- 
clinations, which  leads  one  man  to  observe  with  interest,  the 
development  of  phenomena,  another  to  speculate  on  their 
causes;  but  were  it  not  for  this  happy  disagreement,  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  the  higher  sciences  could  ever  have  attained 
even  their  present  degree  of  perfection." — Sir  Jolin  Her*cliet§ 
Discourses,  p.  131. 

VOL,   II,  I 


194     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE   MATERIAL  WORLD 

all  the  recesses  of  a  various  and  complicated  external 
nature,  there  should  be  a  like  variety  of  intellectual 
predilections  and  powers  scattered  over  the  species 
— a  congruity  between  the  world  of  mind  and  the 
world  of  matter,  of  the  utmost  importance,  both  to 
the  perfecting  of  art,  and  to  the  progress  and  per- 
fecting of  science.  Yet  it  is  marvellous  of  these 
respective  labourers,  though  in  effect  they  work 
simultaneously  and  to  each  other's  hands,  how  little 
respect  or  sympathy  or  sense  of  importance,  they 
have  for  any  department  of  the  general  field,  for 
any  section  in  the  wide  encyclopaedia  of  human 
learning,  but  that  on  which  their  own  faculties  are 
concentrated  and  absorbed.  We  cannot  imagine 
aught  more  dissimilar  and  uncongenial,  than  the 
intentness  of  a  mathematician  on  his  demonstrations 
and  diagrams,  and  the  equal  intentness,  nay  delight, 
of  a  collector  or  antiquarian  on  the  faded  manu- 
scripts and  uncial  characters  of  other  days.  Yet  in 
the  compound  result  of  all  these  multiform  labours, 
there  is  a  goodly  and  sustained  harmony,  between 
the  practitioners  and  the  theorists  of  science, 
between  the  pioneers  and  the  monarchs  of  litera- 
ture— even  as  in  the  various  offices  of  a  well- 
arranged  household,  although  there  should  be  no 
mutual  intelligence  between  the  subordinates  who 
fill  them,  there  is  a  supreme  and  connecting  wisdom, 
which  presides  over  and  animates  the  whole.  The 
goodly  system  of  philosophy,  when  viewed  as  the 
product  of  innumerable  contributions,  by  minds  of 
all  possible  variety  and  men  of  all  ages — bears  like 
evidence  to  the  universe  being  a  spacious  house- 
hold, under  the  one   and  consistent  direction  of 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  195 

Him  who  is  at  once  the  Parent  and  the  Master  of 
a  universal  family.* 

30.  And  here  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  remark, 
that  it  is  the  very  perfection  of  the  Divine  work- 
manship, which  leads  every  inquirer  to  imagine  a 
surpassing  worth  and  grace  and  dignity  in  his  own 
special  department  of  it.      The  fact  is  altogether 
notorious,  that,  in  order  to  attain  a  high  sense  of 
the  importance  of  any  science,  and  of  the  worth 
and  beauty  of  the  objects  which   it   embraces — 
nothing  more  is  necessary  than  the  intent  and  per- 
severing study  of  them.      Whatever  the  walk  of 
philosophy  may  be  on  which  man  shall  enter,  that 
is  the  walk  which  of  all  others  he  conceives  to  be 
most  enriched,  by  all  that  is  fitted  to  entertain  the 
intellect,  or  arrest  the  admiration  of  the  enamoured 
scholar.      The    astronomer  who  can  unravel  the 
mechanism  of  the  heavens,  or  the  chemist  who  can 
trace  the  atomic  processes  of  matter  upon  earth,  or 
the  metaphysician  who  can  assign  the  laws  of  human 
thought,  or  the  grammarian  who  can  discriminate 
the  niceties  of  language,  or  the  naturalist  who  can 
classify  the  flowers  and  the  birds  and  the  shells  and 
the  minerals  and  the  insects  which  so  teem  and 
multiply  in  this  world  of  wonders — each  of  these 
respective  inquirers  is  apt  to  become  the  worship- 
per of  his  own  theme,  and  to  look  with  a  sort  of 
indifference,  bordering  on  contempt,  towards  what 
he  imagines  the  far  less  interesting  track  of  his 

*  The  benefit  of  subdivision  in  science  should  lead  to  the 
multiplication  of  professorships  in  our  literary  institutes,  and  at 
all  events  should  prevent  the  parsimonious  suppression  of  theui, 
or  the  parsimonioua  amalgamation  of  the  duties  of  two  or  more 
into  one. 


196    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

fellow-labourers.  Now  each  is  right  in  the  admir- 
ation he  renders  to  the  grace  and  grandeur  of  that 
field  which  himself  has  explored  ;  but  all  are  wrong 
in  the  distaste  they  feel,  or  rather  in  the  disregard 
they  cast  on  the  other  fields  which  they  have  never 
entered.  We  should  take  the  testimony  of  each 
to  the  worth  of  that  which  he  does  know,  and  reject 
the  testimony  of  each  to  the  comparative  wprth- 
lessness  of  that  which  he  does  not  know  ;  and  then 
the  unavoidable  inference  is  that  that  must  be 
indeed  a  replete  and  a  gorgeous  universe  in  which 
we  dwell — and  still  more  glorious  the  Eternal  Mind, 
from  whose  conception  it  arose,  and  whose  prolific 
fiat  gave  birth  to  it,  in  all  its  vastness  and  variety. 
And  instead  of  the  temple  of  science  having  been 
reared,  it  were  more  proper  to  say,  that  the  temple 
of  nature  had  been  evolved.  The  archetype  of 
science  is  the  universe ;  and  it  is  in  the  disclosure 
of  its  successive  parts,  that  science  advances  from 
step  to  step — not  properly  raising  any  new  archi- 
tecture of  its  own,  but  rather  unveiling  by  degrees 
an  architecture  that  is  old  as  the  creation.  The 
labourers  in  philosophy  create  nothing;  but  only 
bring  out  into  exhibition  that  which  was  before 
created.  And  there  is  a  resulting  harmony  in  their 
labours,  however  widely  apart  from  each  other  they 
may  have  been  prosecuted — not  because  they  have 
adjusted  one  part  to  another,  but  because  the  adjust- 
ment has  been  already  made  to  their  hands.  There 
comes  forth,  it  is  true,  of  their  labours,  a  most 
magnificent  harmony,  yet  not  a  harmony  which 
they  have  made,  but  a  pre-existent  harmony  which 
they  have  only  made  visible — so  that  when  tempted 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  197 

to  idolize  philosophy,  let  us  transfer  the  homage  to 
Him  who  both  formed  the  philosopher's  mind,  and 
furnished  his  philosophy  with  all  its  materials. 

31.  (7.)  The  next  adaptation  that  we  shall  in- 
stance is  one  for  the  introduction  of  which  at  this 
place  we  ought  to  apologize— it  being  rather  one 
of  mind  to  mind,  and  depending  on  a  previous 
adaptation  in  each  mind  of  the  mental  faculties  to 
one  another.  For  the  right  working  of  the  mind, 
it  is  not  enough  that  each  of  its  separate  powers 
shall  be  provided  with  adequate  strength — they 
must  be  mixed  in  a  certain  proportion — for  the 
greatest  inconvenience  might  be  felt,  not  in  the 
defect  merely,  but  in  the  excess  of  some  of  them. 
We  have  heard  of  too  great  a  sensibility  in  the 
organ  of  hearing,  giving  rise  to  an  excess  in  the 
faculty,  which  amounted  to  disease,  by  exposing 
the  patient  to  the  pain  and  disturbance  of  too  many 
sounds,  even  of  those  so  faint  and  low,  as  to  be 
inaudible  to  the  generality  of  men.  In  like  manner 
we  can  imagine  the  excess  of  a  property  purely 
mental,  of  memory  for  example,  amounting  to  a 
malady  of  the  intellect,  by  exposing  the  victim  of 
it  to  the  presence  and  the  perplexity  of  too  many 
ideas,  even  of  those  which  are  so  insignificant,  that 
it  would  lighten  and  relieve  the  mind,  if  they  had 
no  place  there  at  all.*      Certain  it  is  that  the  more 


*  It  has  been  said  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  that  the  excess 
of  his  memory  was  felt  by  him  as  an  incumbrance  in  the  writing 
of  history — adding  as  it  did  to  the  difficulty  of  selection.  It  is 
on  the  same  principle  that  the  very  multitude  of  one's  ideas  and 
words  may  form  an  obstacle  to  extemporaneous  speaking,  as  has 
been  illustrated  by  Dean  Swift  under  the  comparison  of  a  thia 
church  emptying  faster  than  a  crowded  one. 


198    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

full  and  circumstantial  is  the  memory,  the  more  is 
given  for  the  judgment  to  do — its  proper  work  of 
selecting  and  comparing  becoming  the  more  oppres- 
sive, with  the  number  and  distraction  of  irrelevant 
materials.  It  would  have  been  better  that  these 
had  found  no  original  admittance  within  the 
chamber  of  recollection  ;  or  that  only  things  of  real 
and  sufficient  importance  had  left  an  enduring 
impression  upon  its  tablet.  In  other  words,  it 
would  have  been  better,  that  the  memory  had  been 
less  susceptible  or  less  retentive  than  it  is ;  and  this 
may  enable  us  to  perceive  the  exquisite  balancing 
that  must  have  been  requisite,  in  the  construction 
of  the  mind — when  the  very  defect  of  one  faculty 
is  thus  made  to  aid  and  to  anticipate  the  operations 
of  another.  He  who  alone  knoweth  the  secrets 
of  the  spirits,  formed  them  with  a  wisdom  to  us 
unsearchable. 

32.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  variety  in  the 
proportion  of  their  faculties,  is  one  chief  cause  of 
the  difference  between  the  minds  of  men.  And 
whatever  the  one  faculty  may  be,  in  any  individual, 
which  predominates  greatly  beyond  the  average  of 
the  rest — that  faculty  is  selected  as  the  character- 
istic by  which  to  distinguish  him;  and  thus  he  may 
be  designed  as  a  man  of  judgment,  or  information, 
or  fancy,  or  wit,  or  oratory.  It  is  this  variety  in 
their  respective  gifts,  which  originates  so  beautiful 
a  dependence  and  reciprocity  of  mutual  services 
among  men ;  and,  more  especially,  when  any  united 
movement  or  united  counsel  is  requisite,  that  calls 
forth  the  co-operation  of  numbers.  No  man  com- 
bines all  the  ingredients  of  mental  power ;  and  no 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  199 

man  is  wanting  in  all  of  them — so  that,  while  none 
is  wholly  independent  of  others,  each  possesses 
some  share  of  importance  in  the  commonwealth. 
The  defects,  even  of  the  highest  minds,  may  thus 
need  to  be  supplemented,  by  the  counterpart  excel- 
lencies of  minds  greatly  inferior  to  their  own-^ 
and,  in  this  way,  the  pride  of  exclusive  superiority 
is  mitigated ;  and  the  respect  which  is  due  to  our 
common  humanity  is  more  largely  diffused  through- 
out society,  and  shared  more  equally  among  all  the 
members  of  it.  Nature  hath  so  distributed  her 
gifts  among  her  children,  as  to  promote  a  mutual 
helpfulness,  and,  what  perhaps  is  still  more  precious, 
a  mutual  humility  among  men. 

33.  In  almost  all  the  instances  of  mental  supe- 
riority, it  will  be  found,  that  it  is  a  superiority 
above  the  average  level  of  the  species,  in  but  one 
thing — or  that  arises  from  the  predominance  of 
one  faculty  above  all  the  rest.  So  much  is  this 
the  case,  that  when  the  example  does  occur,  of  an 
individual  so  richly  gifted  as  to  excel  in  two  of 
the  general  or  leading  powers  of  the  mind,  his 
reputation  for  the  one  will  impede  the  establishment 
of  his  reputation  for  the  other.  There  occurs 
to  us  one  very  remarkable  case  of  the  injustice, 
done  by  the  men  who  have  but  one  faculty,  to  the 
men  who  are  under  the  misfortune  of  having  two. 
In  the  writings  of  Edmund  Burke,  there  has  at 
length  been  discovered  a  rich  mine  of  profound 
and  strikingly  just  reflection  on  the  philosophy  of 
public  affairs.  But  he  felt  as  well  as  thought,  and 
saw  the  greatness  and  beauty  of  things,  as  well  as 
their  relations ;  and  so,  he  could  at  once  penetrate 


200     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

the  depths,  and  irradiate  the  surface  of  any  object 
that  he  contemplated.  The  light  which  he  flung 
from  him  entered  the  very  innermost  shrines  and 
recesses  of  his  subject ;  but  then  it  was  light  tinged 
with  the  hues  of  his  own  brilliant  imagination,  and 
many  gazing  at  the  splendour,  recognised  not  the 
weight  and  the  wisdom  underneath.  They  thought 
him  superficial,  but  just  because  themselves  arrested 
at  the  surface;  and  either  because,  with  the 
capacity  of  emotion  but  without  that  of  judgment, 
or  because  with  the  capacity  of  judgment  but  with- 
out that  of  emotion — they,  from  the  very  meagre- 
ness  and  mutilation  of  their  own  faculties,  were 
incapable  of  that  complex  homage,  due  to  a  complex 
object  which  had  both  beauty  and  truth  for  its* 
ingredients.  Thus  it  was  that  the  very  exuberance 
of  his  genius  injured  the  man,  in  the  estimation 
of  the  pigmies  around  him ;  and  the  splendour  of 
his  imagination  detracted  from  the  credit  of  his 
wisdom.  Fox  had  the  sagacity  to  see  this ;  and 
posterity  now  see  it.  Now  that,  instead  of  a  pass- 
ing meteor,  he  is  fixed  by  authorship  in  the  literary 
hemisphere,  men  can  make  a  study  of  him ;  and 
be  at  once  regaled  by  the  poetry,  and  instructed 
by  the  profoundness  of  his  wondrous  lucubrations. 

31,  (8.)  Before  quitting  this  department  of  the 
subject,  we  may  advert,  not  to  an  individual  peculi- 
arity, but  to  the  respective  characters  by  which 
two  classes  of  intellect  are  distinguished,  and  to 
the  effect  of  their  mutual  action  and  reaction  on 
the  progress  of  opinion  in  the  world. 

32.  The  first  of  these  intellectual  tendencies 
may  be  seen  in  those  who  are  distinguished  by 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  201 

their  fond  and  tenacious  adherence  to  the  existing 
philosophy,  and  by  their  indisposition  to  any 
changes  of  it.  They  feel  it  painful  to  relinquish 
their  wonted  and  established  habits  of  thought — . 
as  if  the  mind  were  to  suffer  violence,  by  having  to 
quit  its  ancient  courses,  and  to  unlearn  the  opinions 
of  other  days.  We  have  no  doubt  that  the  love 
of  repose,  the  aversion  to  that  mental  labour  which 
is  requisite  even  for  the  understanding  of  a  new 
system,  or  at  least  for  the  full  comprehension  and 
estimate  of  its  proofs — enters  largely  into  this  dislike 
for  all  novelties  of  speculation,  into  this  determined 
preference  for  the  doctrines  in  which  they  have 
been  educated — although  the  associations  too  of 
taste  and  reverence  share  largely  in  the  result.  It 
is  thus  that  the  old  are  more  disinclined  to  changes; 
and  there  is  a  peculiar  reason  why  schools  and 
corporations  of  learning  should  make  the  sturdiest 
resistance  to  them.  It  is  a  formidable  thing  to 
make  head  against  that  majority  within  the  walls  of 
every  venerable  institute,  which  each  new  opinion 
has  to  encounter  at  the  outset ;  and  more  especially, 
if  it  tend  to  derange  the  methods  of  a  university,  or 
unsettle  the  long  established  practice  of  its  masters. 
This  will  explain  that  inveteracy  of  long  possession, 
which,  operating  both  in  many  individual  minds 
and  in  the  bosom  of  colleges,  gives  formation  and 
strength  to  what  may  be  termed  the  conservative 
party  in  science  or  in  the  literary  commonwealth — . 
that  party  which  maintains  the  largest  and  most  re- 
solute contest  with  all  new  opinions,  and  will  not  give 
way,  till  overpowered  by  the  weight  of  demonstra- 
tion, and  energy  of  the  public  voice  in  their  favour. 
I  2 


202    ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

33.  Opposed  to  this  array  of  strength  on  the 
side  of  existing  principles,  we  have  the  incessant 
operations  of  what  may  be  termed  the  movement 
party  in  science  or  in  the  literary  commonwealth 

some  of  whom  are  urged  onward  by  the  mere 

love  of  novelty  and  change ;  others  by  the  love  of 
truth  ;  and  very  many  by  a  sort  of  ardent  and  inde- 
finite imagination  of  yet  unreached  heights  in  phi- 
losophy, and  of  the  new  triumphs  which  await  the 
human  mind  in  its  interminable  progress  from  one 
brilliant  or  commanding  discovery  to  another.  We 
have  often  thought  that  a  resulting  optimism  is  the 
actual  effect  of  the  play  or  collision  that  is  con- 
stantly kept  up  between  these  two  rival  parties  in 
the  world  of  letters.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  well 
that  philosophy  should  not  be  a  fixture,  but  should 
at  length  give  way  to  the  accumulating  force  of 
evidence.  But  on  the  other  hand  it  is  well,  that 
it  should  require  a  certain,  and  that  a  very  consi- 
derable force  of  evidence,  ere  it  shall  quit  its 
present  holds,  or  resign  the  position  which  it  now 
lecupies.  We  had  rather  that  it  looked  with  an 
iir  of  forbidden  authority  on  the  mere  likelihoods 
of  speculation,  than  that,  lightly  set  agog  by  every 
specious  plausibility,  it  should  open  its  schools  to 
a  restless  and  rapid  succession  of  yet  undigested 
theories.  It  is  possible  to  hold  out  too  obstinately 
and  too  long ;  but  yet  it  is  well,  that  a  certain 
balance  should  obtain  between  the  adhesive  and 
the  aggressive  forces  in  the  world  of  speculation ; 
and  that  the  general  mind  of  society  should  have 
at  least  enough  of  the  sedative  in  its  composition, 
to  protect  it  from  aught  like  violent  disturbance. 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  203 

or  the  incursion  of  any  rash  adventurer  in  the  field 
of  originality.  And  for  this  purpose  it  is  well,  that 
each  novelty,  kept  at  bay  for  a  time,  and  made  to 
undergo  a  sufficient  probation,  should  be  compelled 
thoroughly  to  substantiate  its  claims — ere  it  be 
admitted  to  take  a  place  beside  the  philosophy 
which  is  recognised  by  all  the  authorities,  and 
received  into  all  the  institutes  of  the  land. 

34.  And  they  are  the  very  same  principles, 
which,  when  rightly  blended,  operate  so  benefi- 
cially, not  in  philosophy  alone,  but  in  politics. 
There  is  no  spirit  which  requires  more  to  be  kept 
in  check,  than  that  of  the  mere  wantonness  of 
legislation ;  and  so  far  from  being  annoyed  by  that 
indisposition  to  change,  which  is  rather  the  charac- 
teristic of  all  established  authorities,  we  should 
regard  it  in  the  light  of  a  wholesome  counteractive, 
by  which  to  stay  the  excesses  of  wild  and  wayward 
innovators.  There  is  a  great  purpose  served  in 
society  by  that  law  of  nature,  in  virtue  of  which 
it  is  that  great  bodies  move  slowly.  It  would 
not  answer,  if  a  government  were  to  veer  and  to 
vacillate  with  every  breath  of  speculation — if  easily 
liable  to  be  diverted  from  the  steadfastness  of  their 
course,  by  every  lure  or  by  every  likelihood  which 
sanguine  adventurers  held  out  to  them.  It  is  well, 
that  in  the  ruling  corporation  there  should  be  a 
certain  strength  of  resistance,  against  which  all 
splendid  imaginations,  and  all  unsound  and  hollow 
plausibilities,  might  spend  their  force  and  be  dissi- 
pated; and,  so  far  from  complaining  of  it  as  an 
Impracticable  engine  which  is  so  hard  and  difficult 
of  impulse,  we  should  look  upon  its  very  unwieldi- 


204     ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE  MATERIAL  WORLD 

liess  in  the  light  of  a  safeguard,  without  which  we 
should  be  driven  to  and  fro  by  every  wind  of  doc- 
trine on  a  troubled  sea  that  never  rests.  On  these 
accounts  we  feel  inclined,  that,  in  the  vessel  of  the 
body  politic,  there  should  be  a  preponderance  of 
ballast  over  sail ;  and  that  it  really  is  so,  we  might 
put  to  the  account  of  that  optimism,  which,  with 
certain  reservations,  obtains  to  a  very  great  degree 
in  the  framework  and  throughout  the  whole  me- 
chanism of  human  society. 

39.  But  this  property  in  the  machine  of  a  govern- 
ment to  which  we  now  advert,  does  not  preclude 
that  steady  and  sober-minded  improvement  which 
is  all  that  is  desirable.  It  only  restrains  the  advo- 
cates of  improvement  from  driving  too  rapidly.  It 
does  not  stop,  it  only  retards  their  course,  by  a 
certain  number  of  defeats  and  disappointments, 
which,  if  their  course  be  indeed  a  good  one,  are 
but  the  stepping-stones  to  their  ultimate  triumph. 
Ere  that  the  victory  is  gotten,  they  must  run  the 
gauntlet  of  many  reverses  and  many  mortifications  ; 
and  they  are  not  to  expect  that  by  one,  but  by 
several  and  successive  blows  of  the  catapulta,  inve- 
terate abuses  and  long  established  practices  can 
possibly  be  overthrown.  It  is  thus,  in  fact,  that 
every  weak  cause  is  thrown  back  into  the  nonenity 
whence  it  sprung,  and  that  every  cause  of  inherent 
goodness  or  worth  is  ultimately  carried — rejected, 
like  the  former,  at  its  first  and  earliest  overtures ; 
but,  unlike  the  former,  coming  back  every  time  with 
a  fresh  weight  of  public  feeling  and  public  demon- 
stration in  its  favour,  till,  like  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  or  that  of  commercial  restrictions,  causes 


TO  THE  MENTAL  CONSTITUTION.  205 

which  had  the  arduous  struggle  of  many  long  years 
to  undergo,  it  at  length  obtains  the  conclusive  seal 
upon  it  of  the  highest  authority  in  the  land,  and  a 
seal  by  which  the  merits  of  the  cause  are  far  better 
authenticated,  than  if  the  legislature  were  apt  to 
fluctuate  at  the  sound  of  every  new  and  seemly  pro- 
posal. We  have  therefore  no  quarrel  with  a  certain 
vis  inertice  in  a  legislature.  Only  let  it  not  be  an 
absolute  fixture ;  and  there  is  the  hope,  with  perse- 
verance, of  all  that  is  really  important  or  desirable 
in  reformation.  The  sluggishness  that  has  been 
ascribed  to  great  corporations  is,  in  the  present 
instance,  a  good  and  desirable  property — as  being 
the  means  of  separating  the  chaff  from  the  wheat 
of  all  those  overtures,  that  pour  in  upon  represen- 
tatives from  every  quarter  of  the  land ;  and,  so  far 
from  any  feeling  of  annoyance  at  the  retardation 
to  which  the  best  of  them  is  subjected,  it  should 
be  most  patiently  and  cheerfully  acquiesced  in,  as 
being  in  fact  the  process,  by  which  it  brightens  into 
prosperity,  and  at  length  its  worth  and  its  excellence 
are  fully  manifested. 

36.  It  is  not  the  necessary  effect  of  this  peculiar 
mechanism,  it  is  but  the  grievous  perversion  of  it, 
when  the  corrupt  inveteracy  has  withstood  improve- 
ment so  long,  that  ere  it  could  be  carried,  the  as- 
sailing force  had  to  gather  into  the  momentum  of 
an  energy  that  might  afterwards  prove  mischievous, 
when  the  obstacle  which  provoked  it  into  action  had 
at  length  been  cleared  away.  It  is  then  that  the 
vessel  of  the  state,  which  might  have  been  borne 
safely  and  prosperously  onward  in  the  course  of 
ages,  by  a  steady  breeze  and  with  a  sufficiency  of 


206         THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOIL 

ballast,  as  if  slipped  from  her  moorings  is  drifted 
uncontrollably  along,  and  precipitated  from  change 
to  change  with  the  violence  of  a  hurricane. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

On  the  Capacities  of  the  World  for  making  a 
virtuous  Species  happy  ;  and  the  Argument  de- 
ducible  from  this,  both  for  the  Character  of  God, 
and  the  Immortality  of  Man. 

1.  We  shall  now  attempt  to  unfold  the  most 
general  and  comprehensive  of  all  our  adaptations ; 
and  which  we  at  the  same  time  think  the  mos.t 
decisive  of  any  in  establishing  the  righteousness  of 
the  divine  character.  . 

2.  We  have  already  stated  the  distinction,  be- 
tween the  theology  of  those,  who  would  make  the 
divine  goodness  consist  of  all  moral  excellence ; 
and  of  those,  who  would  make  it  consist  of  bene- 
volence alone.  Attempts  have  been  made  to 
simplify  the  science  of  morals,  by  the  reduction  of 
its  various  duties  or  obligations  into  one  element 
— as  when  it  is  alleged,  that  the  virtuousness  of 
every  separate  morality  is  reducible  into  benevo- 
lence, which  is  regarded  as  the  central,  or  as  the 
great  master  and  generic  virtue  that  is  compre- 
hensive of  them  all.  There  is  a  theoretic  beauty 
in  this  imagination — yet  it  cannot  be  satisfactorily 
established,  by  all  our  powers  of  moral  or  mental 
analysis.      We  cannot  rid  ourselves  of  the  obstinate 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        207 

impression,  that  there  is  a  distinct  and  native 
virtuousness,  both  in  truth  and  in  justice,  apart 
from  their  subserviency  to  the  good  of  men;  and 
accordingly,  in  the  ethical  systems  of  all  our  most 
orthodox  expounders,  they  are  done  separate 
homage  to — as  virtues  standing  forth  in  their  own 
independent  character,  and  having  their  own  inde- 
pendent claims  both  on  the  reverence  and  obser- 
vation of  mankind.  Now,  akin  with  this  attempt 
to  generalize  the  whole  of  virtue  into  one  single 
morality,  is  the  attempt  to  generalize  the  character 
of  God  into  one  single  moral  perfection.  Truth 
and  justice  have  been  exposed  to  the  same  treat- 
ment, in  the  one  contemplation  as  in  the  other — 
that  is,  regarded  more  as  derivatives  from  the 
higher  characteristic  of  benevolence,  than  as  dis- 
tinct and  primary  characteristics  themselves.  The 
love  of  philosophic  simplicity  may  have  led  to  this 
in  the  abstract  or  moral  question ;  but  something 
more  has  operated  in  the  theological  question.  It 
falls  in  with  a  still  more  urgent  affection  than  the 
taste  of  man ;  it  falls  in  with  his  hope  and  his 
sense  of  personal  interest,  that  the  truth  and  justice 
of  the  Divinity  should  be  removed,  as  it  were,  to 
the  background  of  his  perspective.  And  accor- 
dingly, this  inclination  to  soften,  if  not  to  suppress, 
the  sterner  perfections  of  righteousness  and  holiness, 
appears,  not  merely  in  the  pleasing  and  poetic- 
effusions  of  the  sentimental,  but  also  in  the  didactic 
expositions  of  the  academic  theism.  It  is  thus 
that  Paley,  so  full  and  effective  and  able  in  his 
demonstration  of  the  natural,  is  yet  so  meagre  in 
his  demonstration  of  the  moral  attributes.     It  is9 


208         THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

in  truth,  the  general  defect,  not  of  natural  theology 
in  itself — but  of  natural  theology,  as  set  forth 
at  the  termination  of  ethical  courses,  or  as  ex- 
pounded in  the  schools.  In*  this  respect,  the 
natural  theology  of  the  heart,  is  at  variance,  with 
the  natural  theology  of  our  popular  and  prevailing 
literature.  The  one  takes  its  lesson  direct  from 
conscience,  which  depones  to  the  authority  of  truth 
and  justice,  as  distinct  from  benevolence;  and 
carries  this  lesson  upwards,  from  that  tablet  of 
virtue  which  it  reads  on  the  nature  of  man  below, 
to  that  higher  tablet  upon  which  it  reads  the  cha- 
racter of  God  above.  The  other  again,  of  more 
lax  and  adventurous  speculation,  would  fain  amal- 
gamate all  the  qualities  of  the  Godhead  into  one ; 
and  would  make  that  one  the  beautiful  and  undis- 
tinguishing  quality  of  tenderness.  It  would  sink 
the  venerable  or  the  awful  into  the  lovely  ;  and  to 
this  it  is  prompted,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of 
theoretic  simplicity — but  in  order  to  quell  the 
alarms  of  nature,  the  dread  and  the  disturbance 
which  sinners  feel,  when  they  look  to  their  sovereign 
in  heaven,  as  a  God  of  judgment  and  of  unspotted 
holiness.  Nevertheless  the  same  conscience  which 
tells  what  is  sound  in  ethics,  is  ever  and  anon 
suggesting  what  is  sound  in  theology — that  we 
have  to  do  with  a  God  of  truth,  that  we  have  to 
do  with  a  God  of  righteousness ;  and  this  lesson 
is  never  perhaps  obliterated  in  any  breast,  by  the 
imagery,  however  pleasing,  of  a  universal  parent, 
throned  in  soft  and  smiling  radiance,  and  whose 
supreme  delight  is  to  scatter  beatitudes  innumerable 
through  a  universal  family.     We  cannot  forget, 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.         209 

although  we  would,  that  justice  and  judgment  are 
the  habitation  of  His  throne;  and  that  His  dwelling- 
place  is  not  a  mere  blissful  elysium  or  paradise  of 
sweets,  but  an  august  and  inviolable  sanctuary. 
It  is  an  elysium,  but  only  to  the  spirits  of  the  holy; 
and  this  sacredness,  we  repeat,  is  immediately 
forced  upon  the  consciousness  of  every  bosom,  by 
the  moral  sense  which  is  within  it — however  fear- 
ful a  topic  it  may  be  of  recoil  to  the  sinner,  and  of 
reticence  in  the  demonstrations  of  philosophy.  The 
sense  of  heaven's  sacredness  is  not  a  superstitious 
fear.  It  is  the  instant  suggestion  of  our  moral 
nature.  What  conscience  apprehends  virtue  to 
be  in  itself,  that  also  it  will  apprehend  virtue  to  be 
in  the  Author  of  conscience ;  and  if  truth  and 
justice  be  constituent  elements  in  the  one,  these  it 
will  regard  as  constituent  elements  in  the  other 
also.  It  is  by  learning  direct  of  God  from  the 
phenomena  of  human  conscience ;  or  taking  what 
it  tells  us  to  be  virtues  in  themselves,  for  the  very 
virtues  of  the  Godhead,  realized,  in  actual  and 
living  exemplification  upon  His  character — it  is 
thus  that  we  escape  from  the  illusion  of  poetical 
religionists,  who,  in  the  incense  which  they  offer 
to  the  benign  virtues  of  the  parent,  are  so  apt  to 
overlook  the  virtues  of  the  Lawgiver  and  Judge. 

3.  When  we  take  this  fuller  view  of  God's  moral 
nature — when  we  make  account  of  the  righteous- 
ness as  well  as  the  benevolence — when  we  yield  to 
the  suggestion  of  our  own  hearts,  that  to  Him 
belongs  the  sovereign  state,  and,  if  needful,  the 
severity  of  the  lawgiver,  as  well  as  the  fond  affec- 
tion of  the  parent — when  we  assign  to  Him  the 


210        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

character,  which,  instead  of  but  one  vritue,  is  com- 
prehensive of  them  all — we  are  then  on  firmer 
vantage-ground  for  the  establishment  of  a  Natural 
Theology,  in  harmony,  both  with  the  lessons  of 
conscience,  and  with  the  phenomena  of  the  external 
world.  Many  of  our  academic  theists  have  greatly 
crippled  their  argument^  by  confining  themselves 
to  but  one  feature  in  the  character  of  the  Divinity 
. — as  if  His  only  wish  in  reference  to  the  creatures 
that  He  had  made,  was  a  wish  for  their  happiness ; 
or  as  if,  instead  of  the  subjects  of  a  righteous  and 
moral  government,  they  were  but  the  nurslings  of 
His  tenderness.  They  have  exiled  and  put  forth 
every  thing  like  jurisprudence  from  the  relation  in 
which  God  stands  to  man;  and  by  giving  the 
foremost  place  in  their  demonstrations  to  the  mere 
beneficence  of  the  Deity,  they  have  made  the 
difficulties  of  the  subject  far  more  perplexing  and 
unresolvable  than  they  needed  to  have  been.  For 
with  benevolence  alone  we  cannot  even  extenuate 
and  much  less  extricate  ourselves,  from  the  puzzling 
difficulty  of  those  physical  sufferings  to  which  the 
sentient  creation,  as  far  as  our  acquaintance  ex- 
tends with  it  is  universally  liable.  It  is  only  by 
admitting  the  sanctities  along  with  what  may  be 
termed  the  humanities  of  the  divine  character,  that 
this  enigma  can  be  at  all  alleviated.  Whereas,  if, 
apart  from  the  equities  of  a  moral  government,  we 
Look  to  God  in  no  other  light,  than  mere  tasteful 
and  sentimental  religionists  do,  or  as  but  a  benign 
and  indulgent  Father  whose  sole  delight  is  the 
happiness  of  His  family — there  are  certain  stubborn 
anomalies  which   stand  in   the   way  of  this  frail 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        211 

imagination,  and  would  render  the  whole  subject  a 
hopeless  and  utterly  intractable  mystery. 

4.  A  specimen  of  the  weakness  which  attaches 
to  the  system  of  Natural  Theology,  when  the 
infinite  benevolence  of  the  Deity  is  the  only  element 
which  it  will  admit  into  its  explanations  and  its 
reasonings,  is  the  manner  in  which  its  advocates 
labour  to  dispose  of  the  numerous  ills,  wherewith 
the  world  is  infested.  They  have  recourse  to 
arithmetic — balancing  the  phenomena  on  each  side 
of  the  question,  as  they  would  the  columns  of  a 
ledger.  They  institute  respective  summations  of 
the  good  and  the  evil ;  and  by  the  preponderance 
of  the  former  over  the  latter,  hold  the  difficulty  to 
be  resolved.  The  computation  is  neither  a  sure 
nor  an  easy  one ;  but  even  under  the  admission  of 
its  justness,  it  remains  an  impracticable  puzzle — 
why  under  a  Being  of  infinite  power  and  infinite 
benevolence,  there  should  be  suffering  at  all.  This 
is  an  enigma  which  the  single  attribute  of  benevo- 
lence cannot  unriddle,  or  rather  the  very  enigma 
which  it  has  created — nor  shall  we  even  approxi- 
mate to  the  solution  of  it,  without  the  aid  of  other 
attributes  to  help  the  explanation. 

5.  It  is  under  the  pressure  of  these  difficulties  that 
refuge  is  taken  in  the  imagination  of  a  future  state 
— where  it  is  assumed  that  all  the  disorders  of  the 
present  scene  are  to  be  repaired,  and  full  compen- 
sation made  for  the  sufferings  of  our  earthly  exist- 
ence. It  is  affirmed,  that,  although  the  body  dies, 
the  soul  is  unperishable ;  and,  after  it  hath  burst 
its  unfettered  way  from  the  prison-house  of  its 
earthly  tabernacle,  that  it  will  expatiate  for  ever 


212        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

in  the  full  buoyancy  and  delight  of  its  then  emanci- 
pated energies — that,  even  as  from  the  lacerated 
shell  of  the  inert  chrysalis  the  winged  insect  rises 
in  all  the  pride  of  its  now  expanded  beauty  among 
the  fields  of  light  and  ether  which  are  above  it, 
so  the  human  spirit  finds  its  way  through  the 
opening  made  by  death  upon  its  corporeal  frame- 
work among  the  glories  of  the  upper  Elysium.  It 
is  this  immortality  which  is  supposed  to  unriddle 
all  the  difficulties  that  attach  to  our  present  condi- 
tion ;  which  converts  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world, 
into  the  instrument  of  a  greatly  over-passing  good  ; 
and  affords  a  scene  for  the  imagination  to  rest  upon, 
where  all  the  anomalies  which  now  exercise  us 
shall  be  rectified,  and  where,  from  the  larger  pro- 
spects we  shall  then  have  the  whole  march  and 
destiny  of  man,  the  ways  of  God  to  His  creatures 
shall  appear  in  all  the  lustre  of  their  full  and  noble 
vindication. 

6.  But  as  the  superiority  of  the  happiness  over 
the  misery  of  the  world,  affords  insufficient  premises 
on  which  to  conclude  the  benevolence  of  God,  so 
long  as  God  is  conceived  of  under  the  partial  view 
of  possessing  but  this  as  his  alone  moral  attribute — 
when  that  benevolence  is  employed  as  the  argument 
for  some  ulterior  doctrine  in  Natural  Theology,  it 
must  impart  to  this  latter  the  same  inconclusiveness 
by  which  itself  is  characterized.  The  proof  and 
the  thing  proved  must  be  alike  strong  or  alike  weak. 
If  the  excess  of  enjoyment  over  suffering  in  the  life 
that  now  is,  be  a  matter  of  far  too  doubtful  calcu- 
lation, on  which  to  rest  a  confident  inference  in 
favour  of  the  divine  benevolence ;  then,  let  tliis 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        213 

benevolence  have  no  other  prop  to  lean  upon,  and 
in  its  turn,  it  is  far  too  doubtful  a  premise,  on 
which  to  infer  a  coming  immortality.  Accordingly, 
to  help  out  the  argument,  many  of  our  slender  and 
sentimental  theists,  who  will  admit  of  no  other 
moral  attribute  for  the  divinity  than  the  paternal 
attribute  of  kind  affection  for  the  creatures  who 
have  sprung  from  Him,  do,  in  fact,  assume  the 
thing  to  be  proved,  and  reason  in  a  circle.  The 
mere  balance  of  the  pleasures  and  pains  of  the 
present  life,  is  greatly  too  uncertain,  for  what  may 
be  called  an  initial  footing  to  this  argument.  But 
let  a  future  life  be  assumed,  in  which  all  the  defects 
and  disorders  of  the  present  are  to  be  repaired ; 
and  this  may  reconcile  the  doctrine  of  the  benevo- 
lence of  God,  with  the  otherwise  stumbling  fact  of 
the  great  actual  wretchedness  that  is  now  in  the 
world.  Out  of  the  observed  phenomena  of  life 
and  an  assumed  immortality  together,  a  tolerable 
argument  may  be  raised  for  this  most  pleasing 
and  amiable  of  all  the  moral  characteristics ;  but 
it  is  obvious  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  enters 
into  the  premises  of  this  first  argument.  But  how 
is  the  immortality  itself  proved  ?  not  by  the  pheno- 
mena of  life  alone,  but  by  these  phenomena  taken 

in  conjunction  ^ith  the  divine  benevolence which 

benevolence,  therefore,  enters  into  the  premise  of 
the  second  argument.  In  the  one  argument,  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  is  required  to  prove  the 
benevolence  of  God.  In  the  other,  this  benevo- 
lence is  required  to  prove  the  immortality.  Each 
is  used  as  an  assumption  for  the  establishment  of 
the  other ;  and  this  nullifies  the  reasoning  for  both. 


214        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

Either  of  these  terms — that  is,  the  divine  benevo- 
lence, or  a  future  state  of  compensation  for  the 
evils  and  inequalities  of  the  present  one — either 
of  them,  if  admitted,  may  be  held  a  very  sufficient, 
or,  at  least,  likely  consideration  on  which  to  rest 
the  other.  But  it  makes  very  bad  reasoning  to 
vibrate  between  both — first  to  go  forth  with  the 
assumption  that  God  is  benevolent,  and  therefore 
it  is  impossible  that  a  scene  so  dark  and  disor- 
dered as  that  immediately  before  us  can  offer  to  our 
contemplation  the  full  and  final  development  of 
all  his  designs  for  the  human  family  ;  and  then, 
feeling  that  this  scene  does  not  afford  a  sufficient 
basis  on  which  to  rest  the  demonstration  of  this 
attribute,  to  strengthen  the  basis  and  make  it 
broader  by  the  assertion,  that  it  is  not  from  a  part 
of  His  ways,  but  from  their  complete  and  compre- 
hensive whole,  as  made  up  both  of  time  and  eternity, 
that  we  draw  the  inference  of  a  benevolent  Deity. 
There  is  no  march  of  argument.  We  swing  as  it 
were  between  two  assumptions.  It  is  like  one  of 
those  cases  in  geometry,  which  remains  indetermi- 
nate for  the  want  of  data.  And  the  only  effectual 
method  of  being  extricated  from  such  an  ambiguity, 
would  be  the  satisfactory  assurance  either  of  a 
benevolence  independent  of  all  considerations  of 
immortality,  or  of  an  immortality  independent  of 
all  considerations  of  the  benevolence. 

7.  But  then  it  should  be  recollected  that  it  is 
the  partiality  of  our  contemplation,  and  it  alone 
which  incapacitates  this  whole  argument.  There 
is  a  sickly  religion  of  taste  which  clings  exclusively 
to  the  parental  benevolence  of  God ;  and  will  not, 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        215 

cannot,  brave  the  contemplation  of  His  righteous- 
ness. It  is  this  which  makes  the  reasoning  as 
feeble,  as  the  sentiment  is  flimsy.  It,  in  fact, 
leaves  the  system  of  natural  theology  without  a 
groundwork — first  to  argue  for  immortality  on  the 
doubtful  assumption  of  a  supreme  benevolence, 
and  then  to  argue  this  immortality  in  proof  of  the 
benevolence.  The  whole  fabric,  bereft  of  argument 
and  strength,  is  ready  to  sink  under  the  weight  of 
unresolved  difficulties.  The  mere  benevolence  of 
the  Deity  is  not  so  obviously  or  decisively  the 
lesson  of  surrounding  phenomena,  as,  of  itself,  to 
be  the  foundation  of  a  solid  inference  regarding 
either  the  character  of  God  or  the  prospects  of 
man.  If  we  would  receive  the  full  lesson — if  we 
would  learn  all  which  these  phenomena,  when 
rightly  and  attentively  regarded,  are  capable  of 
teaching — if  along  with  the  present  indications  of 
a  benevolence,  we  take  the  present  indications  of 
a  righteousness  in  God — out  of  these  blended 
characteristics,  we  should  have  materials  for  an 
argument  of  firmer  texture.  It  is  to  the  leaving 
out  of  certain  data,  even  though  placed  within  the 
reach  of  observation,  that  the  infirmity  of  the 
argument  is  owing — whereas,  did  we  employ  aright 
all  the  data  in  our  possession,  we  might  incorporate 
them  together  into  the  solid  groundwork  of  a  solid 
reasoning.  •  It  is  by  our  sensitive  avoidance  of 
certain  parts  in  this  contemplation,  that  we  enfee- 
ble the  cause.  We  should  find  a  stable  basis  in 
existing  appearances,  did  we  give  them  a  fair  and 
full  interpretation — as  indicating  not  only  the 
benevolence  of  God,  but,  both  by  the  course  of 


216        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

nature,  and  the  laws  of  man's  moral  economy, 
indicating  His  love  of  righteousness  and  hatred  of 
iniquity.  It  might  not  resolve,  but  it  would 
alleviate  the  mystery  of  things,  could  we  within 
the  sphere  of  actual  observation,  collect  notices, 
not  merely  of  a  God  who  rejoiced  in  the  physical 
happiness  of  His  creatures,  but  of  a  God  who  had 
respect  unto  their  virtue.  Now  the  great  evidence 
for  this  latter  characteristic  of  the  Divinity,  lies 
near  at  hand — even  ambng  the  intimacies  of  our 
own  felt  and  familiar  nature.  It  is  not  fetched  by 
imagination  from  a  distance,  for  every  man  has  it 
within  himself.  The  supremacy  of  conscience  is 
a  fact  or  phenomenon  of  man's  moral  constitution ; 
and  from  this  law  of  the  heart,  we  pass,  by  direct 
and  legitimate  inference,  to  the  character  of  Him 
who  established  it  there.  In  a  law,  we  read  the 
character  of  the  lawgiver ;  and  this,  whether  it  be 
a  felt  or  a  written  law.  We  learn  from  the  pheno- 
mena of  conscience,  that,  however  God  may  will 
the  happiness  of  his  creatures,  His  paramount  and 
peremptory  demand  is  for  their  virtue.  He  is  the 
moral  governor  of  a  kingdom,  as  well  as  the  father 
of  a  family  ;  and  it  is  a  partial  view  that  we  take  of 
Him,  unless,  along  with  the  kindness  which  belongs 
to  Him  as  a  parent,  we  have  respect  unto  that 
authority  which  belongs  to  him  as  a  sovereign  and 
a  judge.  We  have  direct  intimation  of  this  in  our 
own  bosoms,  in  the  constant  assertion  which  is 
made  there  on  the  side  of  virtue,  in  the  discomfort 
and  remorse  which  attend  its  violation. 

8.  But  though  conscience  be  our  original  and 
chief  ins*  ictor  in  the  righteousness  of  God,  the 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        217 

same  lesson  may  be  learned  in  another  way.  It 
may  be  gathered  from  the  phenomena  of  human 
life — even  those  very  phenomena,  which  so  perplex 
the  mind,  so  long  as  in  quest  of  but  one  attribute 
and  refusing  to  admit  the  evidence  or  even  enter- 
tain the  notion  of  any  other, — it  cherishes  a  partial 
and  prejudiced  view  of  the  Deity.  Those  theists, 
who,  in  this  spirit,  have  attempted  to  strike  a 
balance  between  the  pleasures  and  the  pains  of 
sentient  nature,  and  to  ground  thereupon  the  very 

doubtful  inference   of    the   divine   benevolence 

seldom  or  never  think  of  connecting  these  pleasures 
and  pains  with  the  moral  causes,  which,  whether 
proximately  or  remotely,  go  before  them.  Without 
adverting  to  these,  they  rest  their  conclusion  on 
the  affirmed  superiority,  however  ill  or  uncertainly 
made  out,  of  the  physical  enjoyments  over  the 
physical  sufferings  of  life.  Now  we  hold  it  of 
capital  importance  in  this  argument,  that,  in  our 
own  species  at  least,  both  these  enjoyments  and 
these  sufferings  are  mainly  resolvable  into  moral 
causes — insomuch  that,  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases,  the  deviation  from  happiness,  can  be  traced 
to  an  anterior  deviation  from  virtue;  and  that, 
apart  from  death  and  accident  and  unavoidable 
disease,  the  wretchedness  of  humanity  is  due  to  a 
vicious  and  ill-regulated  morale.  When  we  thus 
look  to  the  ills  of  life  in  their  immediate  origin, 
though  it  may  not  altogether  dissipate,  it  goes  far 
to  reduce,  and  even  to  explain  the  mystery  of  their 
existence.  Those  evils  which  vex  and  agitate 
man,  emanate,  in  the  great  amount  of  them,  from 
the  fountain  of  his  own  heart;  and  come  forth,  not 

VOL.  II  K 


218       THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

of  a  distempered  material,  but  of  a  distempered 
moral  economy.  Were  each  separate  infelicity 
referred  to  its  distinct  source,  we  should,  generally 
speaking,  arrive  at  some  moral  perversity,  whether 
of  the  affections  or  of  the  temper — so  that  but  for 
the  one,  the  other  would  not  have  been  realized. 
It  is  true,  that,  perhaps  in  every  instance,  some 
external  cause  may  be  assigned,  for  any  felt  annoy- 
ance to  which  our  nature  is  liable ;  but  then,  it  is 
a  cause  without,  operating  on  a  sensibility  within. 
So  that  in  all  computations,  whether  of  suffering 
or  of  enjoyment,  the  state  of  the  subjective  or 
recipient  mind  must  be  taken  into  account,  as 
well  as  the  influences  which  play  upon  it  from  the 
surrounding  world ;  and  what  we  affirm  is,  that, 
to  a  rightly  conditioned  mind,  the  misery  would 
be  reduced  and  the  happiness  augmented  tenfold. 
When  disappointment  agonizes  the  heart;  or  a 
very  slight,  perhaps  unintentional  neglect,  lights 
up  in  many  a  soul  the  fierceness  of  resentment ;  or 
coldness,  and  disdain,  and  the  mutual  glances  of 
contempt  and  hatred,  circulate  a  prodigious  mass 
of  infelicity  through  the  world — these  are  to  be 
ascribed,  not  to  the  untowardness  of  outward 
circumstances,  but  to  the  untowardness  of  man's 
Dwn  constitution,  and  are  the  fruits  of  a  disordered 
spiritual  system.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  poverty  which  springs  from  indolence  or  dissi- 
pation ;  of  the  disgrace  which  comes  on  the  back 
of  misconduct ;  of  the  pain  or  uneasiness  which 
festers  in  every  heart  that  is  the  prey,  whether  of 
licentious  or  malignant  passions :  in  short,  of  the 
general  restlessness   and  unhingement  of    every 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       219 

spirit,  which,  thrown  adrift  from  the  restraints  of 
principle,  has  no  well-spring  of  satisfaction  in  itself, 
but  precariously  vacillates,  in  regard  to  happiness, 
with  the  hazard  and  the  casual  fluctuation  of  out- 
ward things.  There  are,  it  is  true,  sufferings 
purely  physical,  which  belong  to  the  sentient  and 
not  to  the  moral  nature — as  the  maladies  of  infant 
disease,  and  the  accidental  inflictions  wherewith 
the  material  frame  is  sometimes  agonized.  Still  it 
will  be  found,  that  the  vast  amount  of  human 
wretchedness,  can  be  directly  referred  to  the  way- 
wardness and  morbid  state  of  the  human  will — to 
the  character  of  man,  and  not  to  the  condition 
which  he  occupies. 

9.  Now  what  is  the  legitimate  argument  for  the 
character  of  God,  not  from  the  mere  existence  of 
misery,  but  from  the  existence  of  misery  thus 
originated?  Wretchedness,  of  itself,  were  fitted 
to  cast  an  uncertainty,  even  a  suspicion,  on  the 
benevolence  of  God.  But  wretchedness  as  the 
result  of  wickedness,  may  not  indicate  the  negation 
of  this  one  attribute.  It  may  only  indicate  the 
reality  or  the  presence  of  another.  Suffering 
without  a  cause  and  without  an  object,  may  be  the 
infliction  of  a  malignant  being.  But  suffering  in 
alliance  with  sin,  should  lead  to  a  very  different 
conclusion.  When  thus  related  it  may  cast  no 
impeachment  on  the  benevolence,  and  only  bespeak 
the  righteousness  of  God.  It  tells  us  that  how- 
ever much  He  may  love  the  happiness  of  His 
creatures,  He  loves  their  virtue  more.  So  that, 
instead  of  extinguishing  the  evidence  of  one  per- 
fection, it   may  leave   this   evidence  entire,  and 


220        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

bring  out   into   open  manifestation  another   per- 
fection of  the  Godhead. 

10.  In  attempting  to  form  our  estimate  of  the 
divine  character  from  the  existing  phenomena,  the 
fair  proceeding  would  be,  not  to  found  it  on  the 
actual  miseries  which  abound  in  the  world,  peopled 
with  a  depraved  species — but  on  the  fitnesses 
which  abound  in  the  world,  to  make  a  virtuous 
species  happy.  We  should  try  to  figure  its  result 
on  human  life,  were  perfect  virtue  to  revisit  earth, 
and  take  up  its  abode  in  every  family.  The 
question  is,  are  we  so  constructed  and  so  accom- 
modated, that,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  we,  if 
morally  right,  should  be  physically  happy.  What, 
we  should  ask,  is  the  real  tendency  of  nature's 
laws — whether  to  minister  enjoyment  to  the 
good  or  the  evil  ?  It  were  a  very  strong,  almost 
an  unequivocal  testimony  to  the  righteousness  of 
Him,  who  framed  the  system  of  things  and  all  its 
adaptations — if,  while  it  secured  a  general  harmony 
between  the  virtue  of  mankind  and  their  happiness 
or  peace,  it  as  constantly  impeded  either  the  pro- 
sperity or  the  heart's  ease  of  the  profligate  and  the 
lawless.  Now  of  this  we  might  be  informed  by  an 
actual  survey  of  human  life.  We  can  justly 
imagine  the  consequences  upon  human  society — 
were  perfect  uprightness  and  sympathy  and  good- 
will to  obtain  universally ;  were  every  man  to  look 
to  his  fellow  with  a  brother's  eye;  were  a  universal 
courteousness  to  reign  in  our  streets  and  our 
houses  and  our  market-places,  and  this  to  be  the 
spontaneous  emanation  of  a  universal  cordiality ; 
were  each  man's  interest  and  reputation  as  safe  in 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        221 

the  custody  of  another,  as  he  now  strives  to  make 
them  by  a  jealous  guardianship  of  his  own ;  were, 
on  the  one  hand,  a  prompt  and  eager  benevolence 
on  the  part  of  the  rich,  ever  on  the  watch  to  meet, 
nay,  to  overpass  all  the  wants  of  humanity,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  an  honest  moderation  and  inde- 
pendence on  the  part  of  the  poor,  to  be  a  full 
defence  for  their  superiors  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  deceit  and  rapacity;  were  liberality  to 
walk  diffusively  abroad  among  men,  and  love  to 
settle  pure  and  unruffled  in  the  bosom  of  families ; 
were  that  moral  sunshine  to  arise  in  every  heart, 
which  purity  and  innocence  and  kind  affection  are 
ever  sure  to  kindle  there;  and,  even  when  some 
visitation  from  without  was  in  painful  dissonance 
with  the  harmony  within,  were  a  thousand  sweets 
ready  to  be  poured  into  the  cup  of  tribulation  from 
the  feeling  and  the  friendship  of  all  the  good  who 
were  around  us.  On  this  single  transition  from 
vice  to  virtue  among  men,  does  there  not  hinge 
the  alternative  between  a  pandsemonium  and  a 
paradise  ?  If  the  moral  elements  were  in  full  play 
and  operation  amongst  us,  should  we  still  continue 
to  fester  and  be  unhappy  from  the  want  of  the 
physical?  Or,  is  it  not  rather  true,  that  all  nature 
smiles  in  beauty,  or  wantons  in  bounteousness  for 
our  enjoyment — were  but  the  disease  of  our  spirits 
medicated,  were  there  but  moral  soundness  in  the 
heart  of  man  ? 

11.  And  what  must  be  the  character  of  the 
Being  who  formed  such  a  world,  where  the  moral 
and  the  physical  economies  are  so  adjusted  to  each 
other,  that  virtue,  if  universal,  would  bring  ten 


222        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

thousand  blessings  and  beatitudes  in  its  train, 
and  turn  our  earth  into  an  elysium — whereas 
nothing  so  distempers  the  human  spirit,  and  so 
multiplies  distress  in  society,  as  the  vice  and  the 
violence  and  the  varieties  of  moral  turpitude  where- 
with it  is  infested.  Would  a  God  who  loved 
iniquity  and  who  hated  righteousness  have  created 
such  a  world?  Would  He  have  so  attuned  the 
organism  of  the  human  spirit,  that  the  conscious- 
ness of  worth  should  be  felt  through  all  its  recesses, 
like  the  oil  of  gladness?  Or  would  he  have  so 
constructed  the  mechanism  of  human  society,  that 
it  should  never  work  prosperously  for  the  general 
good  of  the  species,  but  by  means  of  truth  and 
philanthropy  and  uprightness  ?  Would  the  friend 
and  patron  of  falsehood  have  let  such  a  world  out 
of  his  hands  ?  Or  would  an  unholy  being  have  so 
fashioned  the  heart  of  man — that,  wayward  and 
irresolute  as  he  is,  he  never  feels  so  ennobled,  as 
by  the  high  resolve  that  would  spurn  every  base 
allurement  of  sensuality  away  from  him ;  and  never 
breathes  so  etherially,  as  when  he  maintains  that 
chastity  of  spirit  which  would  recoil  even  from  one 
unhallowed  imagination ;  and  never  rises  to  such  a 
sense  of  grandeur  and  godlike  elevation,  as  when 
principle  hath  taken  the  direction,  and  is  vested 
with  full  ascendancy  over  the  restrained  and  regu- 
lated passions?  What  other  inference  can  be 
drawn  from  such  sequences  as  these,  but  that  our 
moral  architect  loves  the  virtue  He  thus  follows  up 
with  the  delights  of  a  high  and  generous  compla- 
cency ;  and  execrates  the  vice  He  thus  follows  up 
with  disgust  and  degradation  ?    If  we  look  but  to 


JMAKXNG  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        228 

misery  unconnected  and  alone,  we  may  well  doubt 
the  benevolence  of  the  Deity.  But  should  it  not 
modify  the  conclusion,  to  have  ascertained — that, 
in  proportion  as  virtue  made  entrance  upon  the 
world,  misery  would  retire  from  it?  There  is 
nothing  to  spoil  Him  of  this  perfection,  in  a  misery 
so  originated;  but,  leaving  this  perfection  untouched, 
it  attaches  to  Him  another,  and  we  infer,  that  He 
is  not  merely  benevolent,  but  benevolent  and  holy. 
After  that  the  moral  cause  has  been  discovered 
for  the  unhappiness  of  man,  we  feel  Him  to  be  a 
God  of  benevolence  still ;  that  He  wills  the  happi- 
ness of  his  creatures,  but  with  this  reservation,  that 
the  only  sound  and  sincere  happiness  He  awards 
to  them,  is  happiness  through  the  medium  of  virtue , 
that  still  He  is  willing  to  be  the  dispenser  of  joy 
substantial  and  unfading,  but  of  no  such  joy  apart 
from  moral  excellence ;  that  He  loves  the  gratifica- 
tion of  His  children,  but  he  loves  their  righteous- 
ness more ;  that  dear  to  Him  is  the  happiness  of 
all  his  offspring,  but  dearer  still  their  worth ;  and 
that  therefore  He,  the  moral  governor  will  so 
conduct  the  affairs  of  His  empire,  as  that  virtue 
and  happiness,  or  that  vice  and  misery  shall  be 
associated. 

12.  We  have  already  said,  that,  by  inspecting  a 
mechanism,  we  can  infer  both  the  original  design 
of  Him  who  framed  it,  and  the  derangement  it  has 
subsequently  undergone — even  as  by  the  inspection 
of  a  watch,  we  can  infer,  from  the  place  of  com- 
mand which  its  regulator  occupies,  that  it  was  made 
for  the  purpose  of  moving  regularly;  and  that, 
notwithstanding  the  state  of  disrepair  and  aberration 


224         THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

into  which  it  may  have  fallen.  And  so,  from  the 
obvious  place  of  rightful  supremacy  which  is 
occupied  by  the  conscience  of  man  in  his  moral 
system,  we  can  infer  that  virtue  was  the  proper 
and  primary  design  of  his  creation ;  and  that,  not- 
withstanding the  actual  prevalence  of  obviously 
inferior  principles,  over  the  habits  and  history  of 
his  life.  Connect  this  with  the  grand  and  general 
adaptation  of  External  Nature  for  which  we  have 
now  been  contending — even  the  capacity  of  that 
world  in  which  we  are  placed  for  making  a  virtu- 
ous species  happy ;  and  it  were  surely  far  juster,  in 
arguing  for  the  divine  character,  that  we  founded 
our  interpretation  on  the  happiness  which  man's 
original  constitution  is  fitted  to  secure  for  him,  than 
on  the  misery  which  he  suffers  by  that  constitution 
having  been  in  some  way  perverted.  It  is  from 
the  native  and  proper  tendency  of  aught  which  is 
made,  that  we  conclude  as  to  the  mind  and  disposi- 
tion of  the  maker ;  and  not  from  the  actual  effect, 
when  that  tendency  has  been  rendered  abortive,  by 
the  extrinsic  operation  of  some  disturbing  force  on 
an  else  goodly  and  well-going  mechanism.  The 
original  design  of  the  Creator  may  be  read  in  the 
natural,  the  universal  tendency  of  things;  and 
surely,  it  speaks  strongly  both  for  His  benevolence 
and  his  righteousness  that  nothing  is  so  fitted  to 
ensure  the  general  happiness  of  society  as  the 
general  virtue  of  them  who  compose  it.  And 
if,  instead  of  this,  we  behold  a  world,  ill. at  ease, 
with  its  many  heart-burnings  and  many  disquie- 
tudes— the  fair  conclusion  is,  that  the  beneficial 
tendencies  which  have   been  established   therein, 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       225 

and  which  are  therefore  due  to  the  benevolence  of 
God,  have  all  been  thwarted  by  the  moral  perversity 
of  man.  The  compound  lesson  to  be  gathered 
from  such  a  contemplation  is,  that  God  is  the  friend 
of  human  hagpiness  but  the  enemy  of  human  vice 
— seeing,  He  hath  set  up  an  economy  in  which 
the  former  would  have  grown  up  and  prospered 
universally,  had  not  the  latter  stepped  in  and  over- 
borne it. 

13.  We  are  now  on  a  groundwork  of  more  firm 
texture,  for  an  argument  in  behalf  of  man's  immor- 
tality. But  it  is  only  by  a  more  comprehensive 
view  both  of  the  character  of  God,  and  the  actual 
state  of  the  world — that  we  obtain  as  much  evidence 
both  for  His  benevolence  and  His  righteousness, 
as  might  furnish  logical  premises  for  the  logical 
inference  of  a  future  state. 

14.  We  have  already  stated  that  the  miseries  of 
life,  in  their  great  and  general  amount,  are  resolv- 
able into  moral  causes;  and  did  each  man  suffer 
here,  accurately  in  proportion  to  his  own  sins,  there 
might  be  less  reason  for  the  anticipation  of  another 
state  hereafter.  But  this  proportion  is,  in  no 
individual  instance  perhaps,  ever  realized  on  this 
side  of  death.  The  miseries  of  the  good  are  still 
due  to  a  moral  perversity — though  but  to  the  moral 
perversity  of  others,  not  of  his  own.  He  suffers 
from  the  injustice  and  calumny  and  violence  and 
evil  tempers  of  those  who  are  around  him.  On 
the  large  and  open  theatre  of  the  world,  the  cause 
of  oppression  is  often  the  triumphant  one  ;  and,  in 
the  bosom  of  families,  the  most  meek  and  innocent 
of  the  household,  are  frequently  the  victims  for  life, 

k2 


226         THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

of  a  harsh  and  injurious  though  unseen  tyranny 
It  is  this  inequality  of  fortune,  or  rather  of  enjoy- 
ment, between  the  good  and  the  evil,  which  forms 
the  most  popular,  and  enters  as  a  constituent  part 
at  least,  into  the  most  powerful  ajgument,  which 
nature  furnishes,  for  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
We  cannot  imagine  of  a  God  of  righteousness,  that 
He  will  leave  any  question  of  justice  unsettled; 
and  there  is  nothing  which  more  powerfully  suggests 
to  the  human  conscience  the  apprehension  of  a  life 
to  come,  than  that  in  this  life,  there  should  be  so 
many  unsettled  questions  of  justice — first  between 
man  and  man,  secondly  between  man  and  his 
Maker. 

15.  The  strength  of  the  former  consideration 
lies  in  the  multiplicity,  and  often  the  fearful  aggra- 
vation, of  the  unredressed  wrongs  inflicted  every 
day  by  man  upon  his  fellows.  The  history  of 
human  society  teems  with  these;  and  the  unap- 
peased  cry,  whether  for  vengeance  or  reparation, 
rises  to  heaven  because  of  them.  We  might  here 
expatiate  on  the  monstrous,  the  wholesale  atrocities, 
perpetrated  on  the  defenceless  by  the  strong ;  and 
which  custom  has  almost  legalized — having  stood 
their  ground  against  the  indignation  of  the  upright 
and  the  good  for  many  ages.  Perhaps  for  the 
most  gigantic  example  of  this,  in  the  dark  annals 
of  our  guilty  world,  we  should  turn  our  eyes  upon 
injured  Africa — that  devoted  region,  where  the  lust 
of  gain  has  made  the  fiercest  and  fellest  exhibition 
of  its  hardihood ;  and  whose  weeping  families  are 
broken  up  in  thousands  every  year,  that  the  families 
of  Europe  might  the  more  delicately  and  luxuri- 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       227 

ously  regale  themselves.  It  is  a  picturesque,  and 
seems  a  powerful  argument  for  some  future  day  of 
retribution,  when  we  look,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  lordly  oppressor,  wrung  from  the 
sufferings  of  a  captive  and  subjugated  people ;  and 
look,  on  the  other,  to  the  tears  and  the  untold 
agony  of  the  hundreds  beneath  him,  whose  lives  of 
dreariness  and  hard  labour  are  ten  fold  embittered, 
by  the  imagery  of  that  dear  and  distant  land,  from 
which  they  have  been  irrecoverably  torn.  But, 
even  within  the  confines  of  civilized  society,  there 
do  exist  materials  for  our  argument.  There  are 
cruelties  and  wrongs  innumerable,  in  the  conduct 
of  business  ;  there  are  even  cruelties  and  wrongs, 
in  the  bosom  of  families.  There  are  the  triumphs 
of  injustice  ;  the  success  of  deep-laid  and  malignant 
policy  on  the  one  side,  on  the  other  the  ruin  and 
the  overthrow  of  unprotected  weakness.  Apart 
from  the  violence  of  the  midnight  assault,  or  the 
violence  of  the  highway — there  is,  even  under  the 
forms  of  law,  and  amid  the  blandness  of  social 
courtesies,  a  moral  violence  that  carries  as  grievous 
and  substantial  iniquity  in  its  train;  by  which 
friendless  and  confiding  simplicity  may  at  once  be 
bereft  of  its  rights,  and  the  artful  oppressor  be 
enriched  by  the  spoliation.  Have  we  never  seen 
the  bankrupt  rise  again  with  undiminished  splen- 
dour, from  amid  the  desolation  and  despair  of  the 
families  that  have  been  ruined  by  him  ?  Or,  more 
secret  though  not  less  severe,  have  we  not  seen  the 
inmates  of  a  wretched  home  doomed  to  a  hopeless 
and  unhappy  existence,  under  the  sullen  brow  of 
the  tyrant  who  lorded  over  them?     There  are 


228         THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

sufferings  from  which  there  is  no  redress  or  rectify 
cation  upon  earth  ;  inequalities  between  man  and 
man,  of  which  there  is  no  adjustment  here — but 
because  of  that  very  reason,  there  is  the  utmost 
desire,  and  we  might  add  expectancy  of  our  nature, 
that  there  shall  be  an  adjustment  hereafter.  In 
the  unsated  appetency  of  our  hearts  for  justice, 
there  is  all  the  force  of  an  appeal  to  the  Being  who 
planted  the  appetite  within  us  ;  and  we  feel  that  if 
Death  is  to  make  sudden  disruption,  in  the  midst 
of  all  these  unfinished  questions,  and  so  to  leave 
them  eternally — we  feel  a  violence  done  both  to  our 
own  moral  constitution,  and  to  the  high  juris- 
prudence of  Him  who  framed  us. 

16.  But  there  are  furthermore,  in  this  life, 
unfinished  questions  between  man  and  his  Maker, 
The  same  conscience  which  asserts  its  own  supre- 
macy within  the  breast,  suggests  the  God  and  the 
Moral  Governor  who  placed  it  there.  It  is  thus 
that  man  not  only  takes  cognizance  of  his  own 
delinquencies ;  but  he  connects  them  with  the 
thought  of  a  lawgiver  to  whom  he  is  accountable. 
He  passes  by  one  step,  and  with  rapid  inference, 
from  the  feeling  of  a  judge  who  is  within,  to  the 
fear  of  a  Judge  who  sits  in  high  authority  over 
him.  With  the  sense  of  a  reigning  principle  in 
his  own  constitution,  there  stands  associated  the 
sense  of  a  reigning  power  in  the  universe — the  one 
challenging  the  prerogatives  of  a  moral  law,  the 
other  avenging  the  violation  of  them.  Even  the 
hardiest  in  guilt  are  not  insensible  to  the  force  of 
this  sentiment.  They  feel  it,  as  did  Catiline 
and  the  worst  of  Roman  emperors,  in  the  horrors 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        229 

of  remorse.  There  is,  in  spite  of  themselves,  the 
impression  of  an  avenging  God — not  the  less 
founded  upon  reasoning,  that  it  is  the  reasoning  of 
but  one  truth  or  rather  of  but  one  transition,  from 
a  thing  intimately  known  to  a  thing  immediately 
concluded,  from  the  reckoning  of  a  felt  and  a  pre- 
sent conscience  within,  to  the  more  awful  reckoning 
of  a  God  who  is  the  author  of  conscience  and  who 
knoweth  all  things.  Now,  it  is  thus,  that  men  are 
led  irresistibly  to  the  anticipation  of  a  future  state 
— not  by  their  hopes,  we  think,  but  by  their  fears; 
not  by  a  sense  of  unfulfilled  promises,  but  by  the 
sense  and  the  terror  of  unfulfilled  penalties;  by 
their  sense  of  a  judgment  not  yet  executed,  of  a 
wrath  not  yet  discharged  upon  them.  Hence  the 
impression  of  a  futurity  upon  all  spirits,  whither 
are  carried  forward  the  issues  of  a  jurisprudence, 
which  bears  no  marks  but  the  contrary  of  a  full 
and  final  consummation  on  this  side  of  death.  The 
prosperity  of  many  wicked  who  spend  their  days 
in  resolute  and  contemptuous  irreligion ;  the  prac- 
tical defiance  of  their  lives  to  the  bidding  of  con- 
science,  and  yet  a  voice  of  remonstrance  and  of 
warning  from  this  said  conscience  which  they  are 
unable  wholly  to  quell ;  the  many  emphatic  denun- 
ciations, not  uttered  in  audible  thunder  from  above, 
but  uttered  in  secret  and  impressive  whispers  from 
within — these  all  point  to  accounts  between  God 
and  His  creatures  that  are  yet  unfinished.  If  there 
be  no  future  state,  the  great  moral  question  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth,  broken  off  at  the  middle, 
is  frittered  into  a  degrading  mockery.  There  is 
violence  done  to  the  continuity  of  things.     The 


230        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

moral  constitution  of  man  is  stript  of  its  significancy 
and  the  Author  of  that  constitution  is  stript  of  His 
wisdom  and  authority  and  honour.  That  consis- 
tent march  which  we  behold  in  all  the  cycles,  and 
progressive  movements  of  the  natural  economy,  is, 
in  the  moral  economy,  brought  to  sudden  arrest 
and  disruption — if  death  annihilate  the  man,  instead 
of  only  transforming  him.  And  it  is  only  the 
doctrine  of  his  immortality  by  which  all  can  be 
adjusted  and  harmonized.* 

17.  And  there  is  one  proof  for  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  distinct  from  the  one  that  we  have  now 
set  forth — yet  founded  on  adaptation.  For  every 
desire  or  every  faculty,  whether  in  man  or  in  the 
inferior  animals,  there  seems  a  counterpart  object 
in  external  nature.  Let  it  be  either  an  appetite 
or  a  power ;  and  let  it  reside  either  in  the  sentient 
or  in  the  intellectual  or  in  the  moral  economy — . 
still  there  exists  a  something  without  that  is 
altogether  suited  to  it,  and  which  seems  to  be 
expressly  provided  for  its  gratification.  There  is 
light  for  the  eye ;  there  is  air  for  the  lungs ;  there 
is  food  for  the  ever-recurring  appetite  of  hunger ; 
there  is  water  for  the  appetite  of  thirst ;  there  is 
society  for  the  love,  whether  of  fame  or  of  fellow- 
ship ;  there  is  a  boundless  field  in  all  the  objects 
of  all  the  sciences  for  the  exercise  of  curiosity — in 
a  word,  there  seems  not  one  affection  in  the  living 
creature,  which  is  not  met  by  a  counterpart  and  a 

*  It  is  well  said  by  Mr.  Davison,  in  his  profound  and  original 
work  on  Prophecy — that  "  Conscience  and  the  present  constitution 
of  things  are  not  corresponding  terms.  The  one  is  not  the  object 
of  perception  to  the  other.  It  is  conscience  and  the  issue  of 
iking*  which  go  together." 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       2t31. 

congenial  object  in  the  surrounding  creation.      It 
is  this,  in  fact,  which  forms  an  important  class  of 
those  adaptations,  on  which  the   argument  for  a 
Deity  is  founded.      The  adaptation  of  the  parts  to 
each  other  within  the  organic  structure,  is  distinct 
from  the  adaptation  of  the  whole  to  the  things  of 
circumambient  nature ;  and  is  well  unfolded  in  a 
separate   chapter   by    Paley,    on   the   relation   of 
inanimate  bodies  to  animated  nature.      But  there 
is  another  chapter  on  prospective  contrivances,  in 
which   he  unfolds    to  us  other  adaptations,  that 
approximate  still  more  nearly  to  our  argument. 
They  consist  of  embryo   arrangements  or  parts, 
not  of  immediate  use,  but  to  be  of  use  eventually 
— preparations  going  on  in  the  animal  economy, 
whereof  the  full  benefit  is  not  to  be  realized,  till 
some  future  and  often  considerably  distant  develop- 
ment shall  have  taken  place;    such  as  the  teeth 
buried  in  their  sockets,  that  would  be  inconvenient 
during  the  first  months  of  infancy,  but  come  forth 
when  it  is  sufficiently  advanced  for  another  and  a 
new  sort  of  nourishment;    such  as  the  manifold 
preparations,  anterior  to  the  birth,  that  are  of  no 
use  to  the  foetus,  but  are  afterwards  to  be  of  indis- 
pensable use  in  a  larger  and  freer  state  of  existence; 
such  as  the  instinctive  tendencies  to  action  that 
appear  before  even  the  instruments  of  action  are 
provided,  as  in  the  calf  of  a  day  old  to  butt  with 
its  head  before  it  has  been  furnished  with  horns. 
Nature  abounds,  not  merely  in  present  expedients 
for  an  immediate  use,  but  in  providential  expedients 
for  a  future  one ;  and,  as  far  as  we  can  observe, 
we  have  no  reason  to  believe,  that,  either  in  the 


232        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOE 

first  or  second  sort  of  expedients,  there  has  ever 
aught  been  noticed,  which  either  bears  on  no  object 
now,  or  lands  in  no  result  afterwards.  We  may 
perceive  in  this,  the  glimpse  of  an  argument  for 
the  soul's  immortality.  We  may  enter  into  the 
analogy,  as  stated  by  Dr.  Ferguson,  when  he 
says — "  whoever  considers  the  anatomy  of  the 
foetus,  will  find,  in  the-  strength  of  bones  and 
muscles,  in  the  organs  of  respiration  and  digestion, 
sufficient  indications  of  a  design  to  remove  his  being 
into  a  different  state.  The  observant  and  the 
intelligent  may  perhaps  find  in  the  mind  of  man 
parallel  signs  of  his  future  destination."* 

*  Dr.  Ferguson's  reasoning  upon  this  subject  is  worthy  of 
being  extracted  more  largely  than  we  have  room  for  in  the  text-— . 
•'If  the  human  foetus,"  he  observes,  "were  qualified  to  reason 
of  his  prospects  in  the  womb  of  his  parent,  as  he  may  afterwards 
do  in  his  range  on  this  terrestrial  globe,  he  might  no  doubt 
apprehend  in  the  breach  of  his  umbilical  chord,  and  in  his 
separation  from  the  womb  a  total  extinction  of  life,  for  how  could 
he  conceive  it  to  continue  after  his  only  supply  of  nourishment 
from  the  vital  stock  of  his  parent  had  ceased  ?  He  might  indeed 
observe  many  parts  of  his  organization  and  frame  which  should 
seem  to  have  no  relation  to  his  state  in  the  womb.  For  what 
purpose,  he  might  say,  this  duct  which  leads  from  the  mouth  to 
the  intestines  ?  Why  these  bones  that  each  apart  become  hard 
and  stiff,  while  they  are  separated  from  one  another  by  so  many 
flexures  or  joints?  Why  these  joints  in  particular  made, to  move 
upon  hinges,  and  these  germs  of  teeth,  which  are  pushing  to  be 
felt  above  the  surface  of  the  gums  ?  Why  the  stomach  through 
which  nothing  is  made  to  pass?  And  these  spungy  lungs,  so  well 
fitted  to  drink  up  the  fluids,  but  into  which  the  blood  that  passes 
every  where  else  is  scarcely  permitted  to  enter  ? 

"  To  these  queries,  which  the  foetus  was  neither  qualified  to 
make  nor  to  answer,  we  are  now  well  apprized  the  proper  answer 
would  be — the  life  which  you  now  enjoy  is  but  temporary;  and 
those  particulars  which  now  seem  to  you  so  preposterous,  are  a 
provision  which  nature  has  made  for  a  future  course  of  life  which 
you  have  to  run,  and  in  which  their  use  and  propriety  will  appear 
sufficiently  evident. 

"  Such  are  the  prognostics  of  a  future  destination  that  might  be 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        233 

18.  Now  what  inference  shall  we  draw  from 
this  remarkable  law  in  nature,  that  there  is  nothing 
waste  and  no  things  meaningless  in  the  feelings  and 
faculties  wherewith  living  creatures  are  endowed  ? 
For  each  desire  there  is  a  counterpart  object,  for 
each  faculty  there  is  room  and  opportunity  of 
exercise — either  in  the  present,  or  in  the  coming 
futurity.  Now,  but  for  the  doctrine  of  immortality, 
man  would  be  an  exception  to  this  law.  He  would 
stand  forth  as  an  anomaly  in  nature — with  aspira- 
tions in  his  heart  for  which  the  universe  had  no 
antitype  to  offer,  with  capacities  of  understanding 
and  thought,  that  never  were  to  be  followed,  by 
objects  of  corresponding  greatness,  through  the 
whole  history  of  his  being.  It  were  a  violence  to 
the  harmony  of  things,  whereof  no  other  example 
can  be  given ;  and,  in  as  far  as  an  argument  can 
be  founded  on  this  harmony  for  the  wisdom  of  Him 
who  made  all  things — it  were  a  reflection  on  one 
of  the  conceived,  if  not  one  of  the  ascertained 
attributes  of  the  Godhead.  To  feel  the  force  of 
this  argument,  we  have  only  to  look  to  the  obvious 
adaptations  of  his  powers  to  a  larger  and  more 
enduring  theatre — to  the  dormant  faculties  which 
are  in  him  for  the  mastery  and  acquisition  of  all  the 
sciences,  and  yet  the  partial  ignorance  of  all,  and 
the  profound  or  total  ignorance  of  many,  in  which 
he  spends  the  short-lived  years  of  his  present 
existence — to  the  boundless,  but  here,  the  unopened 
capabilities  which  lie  up  in  him,  for  the  compre- 

collected  from  the  state  of  the  foetus ;  and  similar  prognostics  of  a 
destination  still  future  might  be  collected  from  present  appearances 
in  the  life  and  condition  of  man." 


234        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

hension  of  truths  that  never  once  draw  his  attention 
on  this  side  of  death,  for  the  contemplative  enjoy- 
ment both  of  moral  and  intellectual  beauties  which 
have  never  here  revealed  themselves  to  his  gaze. 
The  whole  labour  of  this  mortal   life  would  not 
suffice,  for  traversing  in  full  extent  any  one  of  the 
sciences;   and  yet,  there  may  he  undeveloped  in 
his  bosom,  a  taste  and  talent  for  them  all — none  of 
which    he   can    even   singly   overtake;    for    each 
science,  though  definite  in  its  commencement,  has 
its  out-goings  in  the  infinite  and  the  eternal.     There 
is  in  man,   a  restlessness  of  ambition;  an  inter- 
minable longing  after  nobler  and  higher   things, 
which  nought  but  immortality  and  the  greatness  of 
immortality  can  satiate ;  a  dissatisfaction  with  the 
present,  which  never  is  appeased  by  all  that  the 
world  has  to  offer ;  an  impatience  and  distaste  with 
the  felt  littleness  of  all  that  he  finds,  and  an  unsated 
appetency  for  something  larger  and  better,  which 
he  fancies  in  the   perspective  before  him— to   all 
which   there   is   nothing   like   among  any  of  the 
inferior   animals,   with  whom,  there   is  a  certain 
squareness  of  adjustment,  if  we  may  so  term  it, 
between  each  desire  and  its  correspondent  grati- 
fication.     The  one  is  evenly  met  by  the  other; 
and  there  is  a  fulness  and  definiteness  of  enjoyment, 
up  to  the  capacity  of  enjoyment.     Not  so  with 
man,  who  both  from  the  vastness  of  his  propensities 
and  the  vastness  of  his  powers,  feels  himself  strait- 
ened and  beset  in  a  field  too  narrow  for  him.      He 
alone  labours  under  the  discomfort  of  an  incon- 
gruity between  his  circumstances  and  his  powers ; 
and,  unless  there  be  new  circumstances  awaiting 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY."   235 

him  in  a  more  advanced  state  of  being,  he,  the 
noblest  of  nature's  products  here  below,  would  turn 
out  to  be  the  greatest  of  her  failures. 

19.  We  are  unwilling  to  quit  this  department  of 
proof  without  adverting  to  one  subject  pregnant 
with  adaptations,  which  is  furnished  by  the  history 
of  moral  science;  and  is  replete,  we  have  long 
thought,  with  the  materials  of  a  very  strong  and 
comprehensive  argument. 

20.  We  have  already  adverted  to  the  objective 
nature  of  virtue,  and  the  subjective  nature  of  man, 
as  forming  two  wholly  distinct  objects  of  contem- 
plation. It  is  the  latter  and  not  the  former  which 
indicates  the  moral  character  of  God.  The  mere 
system  of  ethical  doctrine  is  no  more  fitted  to  sup- 
ply an  argument  for  this  character,  than  would  the 
system  of  geometry.  It  is  not  geometry  in  the  ab- 
stract, but  geometry  as  embodied  in  the  heavens, 
or  in  the  exquisite  structures  of  the  terrestri??  ^ny- 
sics — which  bespeaks  the  skill  of  the  Arti£.^r  who 
framed  them.  In  like  manner  it  is  iaot  moral 
science  in  the  abstract,  but  the  mor  constitution 
of  beings  so  circumstanced  and  so  k  *de,  that  virtue 
is  the  only  element  in  which  their  permanent  indi- 
vidual or  social  happiness  car  *e  realized — which 
bespeaks  the  great  Parent  o1  che  human  family  to 
be  himself  the  lover  and  trie  exemplar  of  righteous- 
ness. In  a  word,  it  is  not  from  an  abstraction, 
but  from  the  facts  of  a  creation,  that  our  lesson 
respecting  the  Divine  character,  itself  a  fact,  is  to 
be  learned ;  and  it  is  by  keeping  this  distinction  in 
view,  that  we  obtain  one  important  help  for  draw- 
ing from  the  very  conflict  and  diversity  of  moral 


236        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOB 

theories,  on  the  nature  of  virtue,  a  clear,  nay,  a 
cumulative  argument  for  the  virtuous  nature  of  the 
Godhead. 

21.  The  painful  suspicion  is  apt  to  intrude  upon 
us,  that  virtue  may  not  be  a  thing  of  any  substance 
or  stability  at  all — when  we  witness  the  confusion 
and  the  controversy  into  which  moralists  have  fallen, 
on  the  subject  of  its  elementary  principles.  But, 
to  allay  this  feeling,  it  should  be  observed,  in  the 
first  place,  that,  with  all  the  perplexity  which  ob- 
tains on  the  question  of  what  virtue,  in  the  abstract 
or  in  its  own  essential  and  constituting  quality,  is 
— there  is  a  pretty  general  agreement  among 
moralists,  as  to  what  the  separate  and  specific  vir- 
tues of  the  human  character  are.  According  to 
the  selfish  system,  temperance  may  be  a  virtue, 
because  of  its  subservience  to  the  good  of  the 
individual;  while  by  the  system  of  utility  it  is  a 
virtue,  because  through  its  observation,  our  powers 
and  services  are  kept  entire  for  the  good  of  society 
But  again,  beside  this  controversy  which  relates  to 
the  nature  of  virtue  in  itself,  and  which  may  be 
termed  the  objective  question  in  morals — there  is 
a  subjective  or  an  organic  question  which  relates, 
not  to  the  existence,  but  to  the  origin  and  forma- 
tion of  the  notion  or  feeling  of  virtue  in  the  human 
mind.  The  question,  for  example,  whether  virtue 
be  a  thing  of  opinion  or  a  thing  of  sentiment,  be- 
longs to  this  class.  Now,  in  regard  to  all  those 
questions  which  respect  the  origin  or  the  pedigree 
of  our  moral  judgments,  it  should  not  be  forgotten, 
that,  while  the  controvertists  are  at  issue  upon  this, 
they  are  nearly  unanimous,  as   to  morality  itself 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        237 

being  felt  by  the  mind  as  a  matter  of  supreme  obli- 
gation. They  dispute  about  the  moral  sense  in 
man,  or  about  the  origin  and  constitution  of  the 
court  of  conscience ;  but  they  have  no  dispute 
about  the  supreme  authority  of  conscience — even 
as,  in  questions  of  civil  polity  and  legislation,  there 
may  be  no  dispute  about  the  rightful  authority  of 
some  certain  court,  while  there  may  be  antiquarian 
doubts  and  differences  on  the  subject  of  its  origin 
and  formation.  Dr.  Smith,  for  example,  while  he 
has  his  own  peculiar  views  on  the  origin  of  our 
moral  principles,  never  questions  their  authority. 
He  differs  from  others,  in  regard  to  the  rationale, 
or  the  anterior  steps  of  that  process,  which  at 
length  terminates  in  a  decision  of  the  mind,  on  the 
merit  or  demerit  of  a  particular  action.  The 
Tightness  and  the  supremacy  of  that  decision  are 
not  in  the  least  doubted  by  him.  There  may  be  a 
metaphysical  controversy  about  the  mode  of  arriv- 
ing at  our  moral  judgment,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  perfect  concurrence  in  it  as  the  guide  and  the 
regulator  of  human  conduct — just  as  there  may  be 
an  anatomical  controversy  about  the  structure  of 
the  eye  or  the  terminations  of  the  optic  nerve,  and 
a  perfect  confidence  with  all  parties,  in  the  correct- 
ness of  those  intimations  which  the  eye  gives  of  the 
position  of  external  objects  and  their  visible  pro- 
perties. By  attending  to  this  we  obtain  a  second 
important  help  for  eliciting  from  the  diversity  of 
theories  on  the  nature  of  virtue,  a  cumulative  argu- 
ment for  the  virtuous  nature  of  the  Godhead. 

22.  When  the  conflict  then  of  its  opposing  the- 
ories, would  seem  to  bring  fearful  insecurity  on 


238        THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

moral  science,  let  it  not  be  forgotten,  that  the  very- 
multitude  of  props  and  securities,  by  which  virtue 
is  upholden,  is  that  which  has  given  rise  to  the 
conflict.  There  is  little  or  no  scepticism  in  regard 
to  the  worth  or  substantive  being  of  morality,  but 
chiefly  in  regard  to  its  sustaining  principle  ;  and  it 
is  because  of  so  much  to  sustain  it,  or  of  the  many 
distinct  and  firm  props  which  it  rests  upon,  that 
there  has  been  such  an  amount  of  ethical  contro- 
versy in  the  world.  There  has  been  many  a 
combat,  and  many  a  combatant — not  because  of 
the  baselessness  of  morality,  but  because  it  rests 
on  a  basis  of  so  many  goodly  pillars,  and  because 
of  such  a  varied  convenience  and  beauty  in  the 
elevation  of  the  noble  fabric.  The  reason  of  so 
much  controversy  is,  that  each  puny  controversial- 
ist, wedded  to  his  own  exclusive  view  of  an  edifice 
too  mighty  and  majestic  for  his  grasp,  has  either 
selected  but  one  of  the  upholding  props,  and 
affirmed  it  to  be  the  only  support  of  the  architec- 
ture ;  or  attended  to  but  one  of  its  graces  and 
utilities,  and  affirmed  it  to  be  the  alone  purpose  of 
the  magnificent  building.  The  argument  of  each, 
whether  on  the  foundation  of  virtue  or  on  its 
nature,  when  beheld  aright,  will  be  found  a  distinct 
trophy  to  its  worth — for  each  can  plead  some 
undoubted  excellence  or  good  effect  of  virtue  in 
behalf  of  his  own  theory.  Each  may  have  so 
magnified  the  property  which  himself  had  selected 
— as  that  those  properties  of  virtue  which  others 
had  selected,  were  thrown  into  the  shade,  or  at 
most  but  admitted  as  humble  attendants,  in  the 
retinue  of  his  own  great  principle.     And  so  the 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       239 

controversy  is  not,  whether  morality  be  a  solidly 
constituted  fabric ;  but  what  that  is  which  consti- 
tutes its  solidity,  and  which  should  be  singled  out  as 
the  keystone  of  the  fabric.    Each  of  the  champions 
in  this   warfare  has  fastened  on  a  different  key- 
stone ;  and  each  pushes  the  triumph  against  his 
adversary  by  a  demonstration  of  its  firmness.      Or 
in  other  words,  virtue  is  compassed  about  with 
such  a  number  of  securities,  and  possesses  such  a 
superabundance  of  strength,  as  to  have  given  room 
for  the  question  that  was  raised  about  Samson  of 
old — what  that  is  wherein  its  great  strength  lies. 
.It  is  like  the  controversy  which  sometimes  arises 
about  a  building  of  perfect  symmetry — when  sides 
are  taken,  and  counter-explanations  are  advanced 
and  argued,  about  the  one  characteristic  or  con- 
stituting charm,  which  hath  conferred  upon  it  so 
much   gracefulness.      It   is   even  so  of  morality. 
Each  partisan  hath   advocated  his  own  system; 
and  each,  in  doing  so,  hath  more  fully  exhibited 
some  distinct  property  or  perfection  of  moral  rec- 
titude.     Morality  is  not  neutralized  by  this  con- 
flict of  testimonies;  but  rises  in  statelier  pride,  and 
with  augmented  security,  from  the  foam  and  the 
turbulence  which  play  around  its  base.      To  her, 
this  conflict  yields,  not  a  balance,  but  a  summation 
of  testimonies ;  and,  instead  of  an  impaired,  it  is 
a  cumulative  argument,  that  may  be  reared  out  of 
the  manifold  controversies  to  which  she  has  given 
rise.      For  when  it  is  asserted  by  one  party  in  the 
strife,  that  the  foundation   of  all  morality  is  the 
right  of  God  to  the  obedience  of  his  creatures- 
let  God's  absolute  right  be  fully  conceded  to  them. 


240         THE  CAPACITIES  OP  THE  WORLD  POR 

And  when  others  reply,  that,  apart  from  such 
right,  there  is  a  native  and  essential  Tightness  ui 
morality,  let  this  be  conceded  also.  There  is 
indeed  such  a  Tightness,  which,  anterior  to  law, 
hath  had  everlasting  residence  in  the  character  of 
the  Godhead ;  and  which  prompted  him  to  a  law, 
all  whose  enactments  bear  the  impress  of  purest 
morality.  And  when  the  advocates  of  the  selfish 
system  affirm,  that  the  good  of  self  is  the  sole  aim 
and  principle  of  virtue ;  while  we  refuse  their 
theory,  let  us  at  least  admit  the  fact  to  which  all 
its  plausibility  is  owing — that  nought  conduces 
more  surely  to  happiness,  than  the  strict  observa^* 
tion  of  all  the  recognised  moralities  of  human 
conduct.  And  when  a  fourth  party  affirms  that 
nought  but  the  useful  is  virtuous ;  and,  in  support 
of  their  theory,  can  state  the  unvarying  tendencies 
of  virtue  in  the  world  towards  the  highest  good  of 
the  human  family — let  it  forthwith  be  granted,  that 
the  same  God,  who  blends  in  his  own  person  both 
the  Tightness  of  morality  and  the  right  of  law,  that 
He  hath  so  devised  the  economy  of  things,  and  so 
directs  its  processes,  as  to  make  peace  and  pro- 
sperity follow  in  the  train  of  righteousness.  And 
when  the  position  that  virtue  is  its  own  reward, 
is  cast  as  another  dogma  into  the  whirlpool  of 
debate,  let  it  be  fondly  allowed,  that  the  God, 
who  delights  in  moral  excellence  himself,  hath 
made  it  the  direct  minister  of  enjoyment  to  him, 
who,  formed  after  his  own  image,  delights  in  it 
also.  And  when  others,  expatiating  on  the  beauty 
of  virtue,  would  almost  rank  it  among  the  objects 
of  taste  rather  than  of  principle — let  this  be  fol- 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       241 

lowed  up  by  the  kindred  testimony,  that,  in  all  its 
exhibitions,  there  is  indeed  a  supreme  graceful- 
ness; and  that  God,  rich  and  varied  in  all  the 
attestations  which  He  has  given  of  His  regard  to 
it,  hath  so  endowed  His  creatures,  that,  in  moral 
worth,  they  have  the  beatitudes  of  taste  as  well  as 
the  beatitudes  of  conscience.  And  should  there 
be  philosophers  who  say  of  morality  that  it  is 
wholly  founded  upon  the  emotions — let  it  at  least 
be  granted,  that  He  whose  hand  did  frame  our 
internal  mechanism,  has  attuned  it  in  the  most 
correct  and  delicate  respondency,  with  all  the 
moralities  of  which  human  nature  is  capable. 
And  should  there  be  other  philosophers  who  affirm 
that  morality  hath  a  real  and  substantive  existence 
in  the  nature  of  things,  so  as  to  make  it  as  much 
an  object  of  judgment  distinct  from  him  who 
judges,  as  are  the  eternal  and  immutable  truths  of 
geometry — let  it  with  gratitude  be  acknowledged 
that  the  mind  is  so  constituted  as  to  have  the 
same  firm  hold  of  the  moral  which  it  has  of  the 
mathematical  relations ;  and  if  this  prove  nothing 
else,  it  at  least  proves,  that  the  Author  of  our  con- 
stitution hath  stamped  there  a  clear  and  legible 
impress  on  the  side  of  virtue.  We  should  not 
exclude  from  this  argument  even  the  degrading 
systems  of  Hobbes  and  Mandeville ;  the  former 
representing  virtue  as  the  creation  of  human  policy, 
and  the  latter  representing  its  sole  principle  to  be 
the  love  of  human  praise — for  even  they  tell  thus 
much,  the  one  that  virtue  is  linked  with  the  well- 
being  of  the  community,  the  other  that  it  has  an 
echo  in  every  bosom.      We  would  not  dissever  all 

VOL.  II.  L 


242  THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

these  testimonies;  but  bind  them  together  into 
the  sum  and  strength  of  a  cumulative  argument. 
The  controversialists  have  lost  themselves,  but  it 
is  in  a  wilderness  of  sweets — out  of  which  the 
materials  might  be  gathered,  of  such  an  incense 
at  the  shrine  of  morality,  as  should  be  altogether 
overpowering.  Each  party  hath  selected  but  one 
of  its  claims ;  and  in  the  anxiety  to  exalt  it,  would 
shed  a  comparative  obscurity  over  all  the  rest. 
This  is  the  contest  between  them — not  whether 
morality  be  destitute  of  claims ;  but  what,  out  of 
the  number  that  she  possesses,  is  the  great  and 
pre-eminent  claim  on  which  man  should  do  her 
homage.  Their  controversy  perhaps  never  may  be 
settled ;  but  to  make  the  cause  of  virtue  suffer  on 
this  account,  would  be  to  make  it  suffer  from  the 
very  force  and  abundance  of  its  recommendations. 
23.  But  this  contemplation  is  pregnant  with 
another  inference,  beside  the  worth  of  virtue — even 
the  righteous  character  of  Him,  who,  for  the  sake 
of  upholding  it  hath  brought  such  a  number  of  con- 
tingencies together.  When  we  look  to  the  systems 
of  utility  and  selfishness,  let  us  look  upwardly  to 
Him,  through  whose  ordination  alone  it  is,  that 
virtue  hath  such  power  to  prosper  the  arrangements 
of  life  and  of  society.  Or  when  told  of  the  princi- 
ple that  virtue  is  its  own  reward,  let  us  not  forget 
Him,  who  so  constituted  our  moral  nature,  as  to 
give  the  feeling  of  an  exquisite  charm,  both  in  the 
possession  of  virtue  and  in  the  contemplation  of  it. 
Or  when  the  theory  of  a  moral  sense  offers  itself  to 
our  regards,  let  us  bear  regard  along  with  it  to  that 
God,  who  constructed  this  organ  of  the  inner  man, 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS   SPECIES  HAPPY.      243 

and  endowed  it  with  all  its  perceptions  and  all  its 
feelings.  In  the  utility  wherewith  He  hath  follow- 
ed up  the  various  observations  of  moral  rectitude ; 
in  the  exquisite  relish  which  He  hath  infused  into 
the  rectitude  itself;  in  the  law  of  conformity  thereto 
which  He  hath  written  on  the  hearts  of  all  men ; 
in  the  aspect  of  eternal  and  unchangeable  fitness, 
under  which  he  hath  made  it  manifest  to  every  con- 
science— in  these  we  behold  the  elements  of  many 
a  controversy  on  the  nature  of  virtue ;  but  in  these, 
when  viewed  aright,  we  also  behold  a  glorious 
harmony  of  attestations  to  the  nature  of  God.  It 
is  thus  that  the  perplexities  of  the  question,  when 
virtue  is  looked  to  as  but  a  thing  of  earthly  resi- 
dence, are  all  done  away,  when  we  carry  the  spe- 
culation upward  to  heaven.  They  find  solution 
there ;  and  cast  a  radiance  over  the  character  of  + 
Him  who  hath  not  only  established  in  righteousness 
His  throne,  but,  by  means  of  a  rich  and  varied 
adaptation,  hath  profusely  shed  over  the  universe 
that  He  hath  formed,  the  graces  by  which  He 
would  adorn,  and  the  beatitudes  by  which  he  would 
reward  it.* 


*  It  must  be  obvious  that  we  cannot  exhaust  the  subject,  but 
only  exemplify  it,  by  means  of  a  few  specimens.  There  is  an 
adaptation  which,  bad  it  occurred  in  time,  might  have  been  stated 
in  the  text — suggested  by  the  celebrated  question  respecting  the 
liberty  of  the  human  will.  We  cannot  but  admit  how  much  it 
would  have  deteriorated  the  constitution  of  humanity,  or  rather 
destroyed  one  of  its  noblest  and  most  essential  parts,  had  it  been 
so  constructed,  as  that  either  man  was  not  accountable  for  his  own 
actions,  or  that  these  actions  were  free  in  the  sense  contended  for 
by  one  of  the  parties  in  the  controversy — that  is,  were  so  many 
random  contingencies  which  had  no  parentage  in  any  events  or 
influences  that  went  before  them,  or  occupied  no  place  in  a  train 
of  causation.     Of  the  reasoners  on  the  opposite  sides  of  this  sorely 


244      THE  CAPACITIES  OF    THE  WORLD  FOR 

24.  Although  the  establishment  of  a  moral  theory- 
is  not  now  our  proper  concern,  we  may  nevertheless 
take  the  opportunity  of  expressing  our  dissent  from 
the  system  of  those  who  would  resolve  virtue,  not 
into  any  native  or  independent  Tightness  of  its  own, 
but  into  the  will  of  Him  who  has  arisrht  to  all  our 
services.  Without  disparagement  to  the  Supreme 
Being,  it  is  not  His  law  which  constitutes  virtue  ; 
but,  far  higher  homage  both  to  Him  and  to  His 
law,  the  law  derives  all  its  authority  and  its  being 
from  a  virtue  of  anterior  residence  in  the  character 
of  the  Divinity.  It  is  not  by  the  authority  of  any 
law  over  Him,  that  truth  and  justice  and  goodness, 
and  all  the  other  perfections  of  supreme  moral 
excellence,  have,  in  His  person,  had  their  everlast- 
ing residence.  He  had  a  nature,  before  that  He 
uttered  it  forth  into  a  law.     Previous  to  creation, 

agitated  question — the  one  contending  for  the  moral  liberty,  and 
the  other  for  the  physical  necessity  of  human  actions — it  is  clear 
that  there  are  many  who  hold  the  one  to  be  destructive  of  the 
other.  But  what  the  wisdom  of  man  cannot  argumentatively 
harmonize  in  the  world  of  speculation,  the  power  and  wisdom  of 
God  have  executively  harmonized  in  the  world  of  realities — so 
that  man,  on  the  one  hand,  irresistibly  feels  himself  to  be  an  ac- 
countable creature;  and  yet,  on  the  other,  his  doings  are  as  much 
the  subject  of  calculation  and  of  a  philosophy,  as  many  of  those 
classes  of  phenomena  in  the  material  world,  which,  fixed  and  cer- 
tain in  themselves,  are  only  uncertain  to  us,  not  because  of  their 
contingency,  but  because  of  their  complication.  We  are  not  sure 
if  the  evolutions  of  the  will  are  more  beyond  the  reach  of  predic- 
tion than  the  evolutions  of  the  weather.  It  is  this  union  of  the 
moral  character  with  the  historical  certainty  of  our  volitions,  which 
has  proved  so  puzzling  to  many  of  our  controversialists  ;  but  in 
proportion  to  the  difficulty  felt  by  us  in  the  adjustment  of  these 
two  elements,  should  be  our  admiration  of  that  profound  and  ex- 
quisite skill  which  has  mastered  the  apparent  incongruity — so  that 
while  every  voluntary  action  of  man  is,  in  point  of  reckoning,  the 
subject  of  a  moral,  it  is,  in  point  of  result,  no  less  the  subject  of  a 
physical  law. 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.       245 

there  existed  in  his  mind,  all  those  conceptions  of 
the  great  and  the  graceful,  which  He  hath  embodied 
into  a  gorgeous  universe ;  and  of  which  every  rude 
sublimity  of  the  wilderness,  or  every  fair  and 
smiling  landscape,  gives  such  vivid  representation. 
4nd  in  like  manner,  previous  to  all  government, 
there  existed  in  His  mind  those  principles  of  right- 
eousness, which  afterwards,  with  the  right  of  an 
absolute  sovereign,  He  proclaimed  into  a  law. 
Those  virtues  of  which  we  now  read  on  a  tablet  of 
jurisprudence  were  all  transcribed  and  taken  off 
from  the  previous  tablet  of  the  divine  character. 
The  law  is  but  a  reflection  of  this  character.  In 
the  fashioning  of  law,  He  pictured  forth  Himself ; 
and  we,  in  the  act  of  observing  His  law,  are  only 
conforming  ourselves  to  His  likeness.  It  is  there 
that  we  are  to  look  for  the  primeval  seat  of  moral 
goodness.  Or,  in  other  words,  virtue  has  an  in- 
herent character  of  her  own — apart  from  law,  and 
anterior  to  all  jurisdiction. 

25.  Yet  the  right  of  God  to  command,  and  the 
Tightness  of  His  commandments,  are  distinct  ele- 
ments of  thought,  and  should  not  be  merged  into 
one  another.  We  should  not  lose  sight  of  the 
individuality  of  each,  nor  identify  these  two  things 
— because,  instead  of  antagonists,  they  do  in  fact 
stand  side  by  side,  and  act  together  in  friendly 
co-operation.  Because  two  influences  are  conjoin- 
ed in  agency,  that  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
be  confounded  in  thought.  Their  union  does  not 
constitute  their  unity — and  though,  in  the  con- 
science of  man,  there  be  an  approbation  of  all  rec- 
titude,   and  all  rectitude   be   an   obligation  laid 


24-6       THE  CAPACITIES  OF  THE  WORLD  FOR 

upon  the  conduct  of  man  by  the  divine  law — yet 
still  the  approbation  of  man's  moral  nature  is  one 
thing,  and  the  obligation  of  God's  authority  is 
another. 

26.  That  there  is  an  approval  of  rectitude,  apart 
from  all  legal  sanctions  and  legal  obligations,  there 
is  eternal  and  unchangeable  demonstration  in  the 
character  of  God  himself.  He  is  under  no  law, 
and  owns  the  authority  of  no  superior.  It  is  not 
by  the  force  of  sanctions,  but  by  the  force  of  sen- 
timents that  the  Divinity  is  moved.  Morality  with 
Him  is  not  of  prescription,  but  of  spontaneous 
principle  alone ;  and  He  acts  virtuously,  not  be- 
cause He  is  bidden,  but  because  virtue  hath  its 
inherent  and  eternal  residence  in  His  own  nature. 
Instead  of  deriving  morality  from  law,  we  should 
derive  law,  even  the  law  of  God,  from  the  primeval 
morality  of  His  own  character ;  and  so  far  from 
looking  upwardly  to  His  law  as  the  fountain  of 
morality,  do  we  hold  it  to  be  the  emanation  from 
a  higher  fountain  that  is  seated  in  the  depths  of 
His  unchangeable  essence,  and  is  eternal  as  the 
nature  of  the  Godhead. 

27.  The  moral  hath  antecedency  over  the  juri- 
dical. God  acts  righteously,  not  because  of  juris- 
diction by  another,  but  because  of  a  primary  and 
independent  justice  in  Himself.  It  was  not  law 
which  originated  the  moralities  of  the  divine  cha- 
racter; but  these  moralities  are  self-existent  and 
eternal  as  is  the  being  of  the  Godhead.  The  vir- 
tues had  all  their  dwelling-place  in  the  constitution 
of  the  Divinity — ere  he  stamped  the  impress  of  them 
on  a  tablet  of  jurisprudence.     There  was  an  inher- 


MAKING  A  VIRTUOUS  SPECIES  HAPPY.        247 

ent,  before  there  was  a  preceptive  morality ;  and 
righteousness,  and  goodness,  and  truth,  which  all 
are  imperative  enactments  of  'aw,  were  all  prior 
characteristics,  in  the  underived  and  uncreated 
excellence  of  the  Lawgiver. 


BOOK  V. 

ON  THE  INSCRUTABILITY  OF  THE  DIVINE 
COUNSELS  AND  WAYS;  AND  ON  NATURAL 
THEOLOGY  VIEWED  AS  AN  IMPERFECT 
SYSTEM  AND  AS  A  PRECURSOR  TO  THE 
CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  L 

On   Man's  Partial  and  Limited  Knowledge  of 
Divine  Things, 

1.  The  true  modern  Philosophy  never  makes 
more  characteristic  exhibition  of  itself,  than  at  the 
limit  which  separates  the  known  from  the  unknown, 
It  is  there  that  we  behold  it  in  a  two-fold  aspect: — 
that  of  utmost  deference  and  respect  for  all  the 
findings  of  experience  within  this  limit;  that,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  utmost  disinclination  and  dis- 
trust for  all  those  fancies  of  ingenious  or  plausible 
speculation  which  have  their  place  in  the  ideal 
region  beyond  it.  To  call  in  the  aid  of  a  language 
which  far  surpasses  our  own  in  expressive  brevity, 
its  office  is  "indagare"  rather  than  "  divinai*e." 
The  products  of  this  philosophy  are  copies  and  not 
creations.  It  may  discover  a  system  of  nature, 
but  not  devise  one.  It  proceeds  first  on  the  obser- 
vation of  individual  facts — and  if  these  facts  are 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  249 

ever  harmonized  into  a  system,  this  is  only  in  the 
exercise  of  a  more  extended  observation.  In  the 
work  of  systematizing,  it  makes  no  excursion  beyond 
the  territory  of  actual  nature — for  they  are  the 
actual  phenomena  of  nature  which  form  the  first 
materials  of  this  philosophy — and  they  are  the 
actual  resemblances  of  these  phenomena  that  form 
as  it  were  the  cementing  principle,  to  which  the 
goodly  fabrics  of  modern  science  owe  all  the  solidity 
and  all  the  endurance  that  belong  to  them.  It  is 
this  chiefly  which  distinguishes  the  philosophy  of 
the  present  day  from  that  of  by-gone  ages.  The 
one  was  mainly  an  excogitative  ;  the  other  mainly 
a  descriptive  process — a  description  however  ex- 
tending to  the  likenesses  as  well  as  to  the  peculiar- 
ities of  things  ;  and,  by  means  of  these  likenesses, 
these  observed  likenesses  alone,  often  realizing  a 
more  glorious  and  magnificent  harmony  than  was 
ever  pictured  forth  by  all  the  imaginations  of  all 
the  theorists. 

2.  In  the  mental  characteristics  of  this  philo- 
sophy, the  strength  of  a  full-grown  understanding 
is  blended  with  the  modesty  of  childhood.  The 
ideal  is  sacrificed  to  the  actual — and,  however 
splendid  or  fondly  cherished  an  hypothesis  may  be, 
yet  if  but  one  phenomenon  in  the  real  history  of 
nature  stand  in  the  way,  it  is  forthwith  and  conclu- 
sively abandoned.  To  some  the  renunciation  may 
be  as  painful,  as  the  cutting  off  of  a  right  hand,  or 
the  plucking  out  of  a  right  eye — yet,  if  true  to  the 
great  principle  of  the  Baconian  school,  it  must  be 
submitted  to.  With  its  hardy  disciples  one  valid 
proof  outweighs  a  thousand  plausibilities — and  the 
l2 


250  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

resolute  firmness  wherewith  they  bid  away  the 
speculations  of  fancy,  is  only  equalled  by  the  child- 
like compliance  wherewith  they  submit  themselves 
to  the  lessons  of  experience. 

3.  It  is  thus  that  the  same  principle  which 
guides  to  a  just  and  a  sound  philosophy  in  all  that 
lies  within  the  circle  of  human  discovery,  leads  also 
to  a  most  unpresuming  and  unpronouncing  modesty 
in  reference  to  all  that  lies  beyond  it.  And  should 
some  new  light  spring  up  on  this  exterior  region, 
should  the  information  of  its  before  hidden  mysteries 
break  in  upon  us  from  some  quarter  that  was  before 
inaccessible,  it  will  be  at  once  perceived  (on  the 
supposition  of  its  being  a  genuine  and  not  an  illusory 
light)  that,  of  all  other  men,  they  are  the  followers 
of  Bacon  and  Newton  who  should  pay  the  most 
unqualified  respect  to  all  its  revelations.  In  their 
case  it  comes  upon  minds  which  are  without  preju- 
dice, because,  on  that  very  priRciple  which  is  most 
characteristic  of  our  modern  science,  upon  minds 
without  preoccupation.  For  example,  the  informa- 
tions brought  home  by  any  instrument  of  clearer  or 
larger  vision  have  authority  to  rectify,  or  it  may  be 
to  displace  all  our  previous  imaginations  of  the 
region  whose  mysteries  are  disclosed  by  it.  But 
in  the  mind  of  a  true  Baconian  there  exist  no  such 
imaginations,  or  at  least  none  which  would  not  give 
way  to  the  force  of  evidence,  even  the  smallest  that 
is  assignable.  The  strength  of  his  confidence  in 
all  the  ascertained  facts  of  the  terra  eognita,  is 
at  one  or  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  humility  of 
his  diffidence  in  regard  to  all  the  conceived  plausi- 
bilities of   the  terra  incognita.       In  reference  to 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  251 

these  last,  his  mind  free  of  all  innate  and  all  ante* 
cedent  conceptions,  has  been  often  compared  to  a 
sheet  of  blank  paper.  It  is  in  a  state  of  passive- 
ness,  or  at  most  in  a  state  of  expectancy — ready  to 
be  graven  upon  by  whatever  characters  may  there 
be  inscribed  by  the  hand  of  a  credible  and  com- 
petent informer.  This  habit  of  the  understanding, 
of  such  value  in  all  the  sciences,  is  of  inestimable 
value  in  theology.  Compound  in  its  application, 
but  one  and  simple  in  the  principle  from  which 
it  emanates — this  habit  of  decision  in  regard  to  all 
that  is  known,  and  of  docility  in  regard  to  all  that 
is  unknown,  would  at  once  give  steadfastness  to 
our  Philosophy  and  soundness  to  our  Faith. 

4.  And  let  it  further  be  remarked  of  the  self- 
denial  which  is  laid  upon  us  by  Bacon's  philosophy, 
that,  like  all  other  self-denial  in  the  cause  of  truth 
or  virtue,  it  hath  its  reward.  In  giving  ourselves 
up  to  its  guidance,  we  have  often  to  quit  the  fasci- 
nations of  beautiful  theory ;  but,  in  exchange  for 
them,  we  are  at  length  regaled  by  the  higher  and 
substantial  beauties  of  actual  nature.  There  is 
a  stubbornness  in  facts  before  which  the  specious 
imagination  is  compelled  to  give  way — and  perhaps 
the  mind  never  suffers  more  painful  laceration, 
than,  when  after  having  vainly  attempted  to  force 
nature  into  a  compliance  with  her  own  splendid 
generalizations,  she,  on  the  appearance  of  some 
rebellious  and  impracticable  phenomenon,  has  to 
practise  a  force  upon  herself — when  she  thus  finds 
the  goodly  speculation  superseded  by  the  homely 
and  unwelcome  experience.  It  seemed  at  the 
outset  a  cruel  sacrifice,  when  the  world  of  specu- 


252  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

lation  with  all  its  manageable  and  engaging  sim- 
plicities had  to  be  abandoned — and,  on  becoming 
the  pupils  of  observation,  we,  amid  the  varieties  of 
the  actual  world  around  us,  felt  as  if  bewildered  if 
not  lost  among  the  perplexities  of  a  chaos.  This 
was  the  period  of  greatest  sufferance ;  but  it  has 
had  a  glorious  termination.  In  return  for  the 
assiduity  wherewith  the  study  of  nature  hath 
been  prosecuted,  she  hath  made  a  more  abundant 
revelation  of  her  charms.  Order  hath  arisen  out 
of  confusion — and,  in  the  ascertained  structure 
of  the  universe,  there  are  now  found  to  be  a 
state  and  a  sublimity  beyond  all  that  was  ever 
pictured  by  the  mind  in  the  days  of  her  adven- 
turous and  unfettered  imagination.  Even  viewed 
in  the  light  of  a  noble  and  engaging  spectacle 
for  the  fancy  to  dwell  upon,  who  would  ever 
think  of  comparing  with  the  system  of  Newton, 
either  that  celestial  machinery  of  Des  Cartes  which 
was  impelled  by  whirlpools  of  ether,  or  that  still 
more  cumbrous  planetarium  of  cycles  and 
epicyles  which  was  the  progeny  of  a  remoter  age? 
It  is  thus  that  at  the  commencement  of  the  obser- 
vational process  there  is  the  abjuration  of  beauty. 
But  it  soon  reappears  in  another  form,  and  brightens 
as  we  advance,  and  at  length  there  arises  on  solid 
foundation,  a  fairer  and  goodlier  system  than  ever 
floated  in  airy  romance  before  the  eye  of  genius.* 

*  In  the  "  Essays  of  John  Sheppard," — a  work  very  recently 
published,  and  alike  characterized  by  the  depth  of  its  christian 

intelligence  and  feeling,  and  the  beauty  of  its  thoughts there 

occurs  the  following  passage,  founded  on  the  manuscript  notes 
taken  by  the  author,  of  Playfair's  Lectures.  "  It  was  impres- 
sively stated  in  a  preliminary  lecture  by  a  late  eminent  Scottish 


ON  MAN*S  limited  knowledge  of  god.  253 

Nor  is  it  difficult  to  perceive  the  reason  of  this. 
What  we  discover  by  observation  is  the  product 
of  the  divine  imagination  bodied  forth  by  creative 
power  into  a  stable  and  enduring  reality.  What 
we  devise  by  our  own  ingenuity  is  but  the  product 
of  human  imagination.  The  one  is  the  solid  arche- 
type of  those  conceptions  which  are  in  the  mind  of 
God.  The  other  is  the  shadowy  representation 
of  those  conceptions  which  are  in  the  mind  of  man. 
It  is  just  as  with  the  labourer,  who,  by  excavating 
the  rubbish  which  hides  and  besets  some  noble 
architecture,  does  more  for  the  gratification  of  our 
taste,  than  if  by  his  unpractised  hand,  he  should 
attempt  to  regale  us  with  plans  and  sketches  of  his 
own.  And  so  the  drudgery  of  experimental  science, 
in  exchange  for  that  beauty  whose  fascinations  it 
withstood  at  the  outset  of  its  career,  has  evolved 
a  surpassing  beauty  from  among  the  realities  of 
truth  and  nature.  The  pain  of  the  initial  sacri- 
fice is  nobly  compensated  at  the  last.  The  views 
contemplated  through  the  medium  of  observation 
are  found  not  only  to  have  a  justness  in  them,  but 
to  have  a  grace  and  a  grandeur  in  them,  far  beyond 
all  the  visions  which  are  contemplated  through  the 
medium  of  fancy — or  which  ever  regaled  the  fondest 
enthusiast  in  the  enchanted  walks  of  speculation 
and  poetry.      But  neither  the  grace  nor  the  gran- 


Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy,  that  the  actual  physical  wonders 
of  creation  far  transcend  the  boldest  and  most  hyperbolical 
imaginings  of  poetic  minds ;  i  that  the  reason  of  Newton  and 
Galileo  took  a  sublimer  flight  than  the  fancy  of  Milton  and 
Ariosto.'  That  this  is  quite  true  I  need  only  refer  you  to  a  few 
astronomical  facts  glanced  at  in  subsequent  pages  of  this  volume 
in  order  to  evince.'' — Sheppard's  Essuys,  p.  69. 


254  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

deur  alone  would  without  evidence  have  secured 
acceptance  for  any  opinion.  It  must  first  be  made 
to  undergo,  and  without  ceremony,  the  freest 
treatment  from  human  eyes  and  human  hands.  It 
is  at  one  time  stretched  on  the  rack  of  an  experi- 
ment. At  another  it  has  to  pass  through  fiery 
trial  in  the  bottom  of  a  crucible.  At  another  it 
undergoes  a  long  questionary  process  among  the 
fumes  and  the  nitrations  and  the  intense  heat  of  a 
laboratory — and  not  till  it  has  been  subjected  to 
all  this  inquisitorial  torture  and  survived  it,  is  it 
preferred  to  a  place  in  the  temple  of  truth,  or 
admitted  among  the  laws  and  the  lessons  of  a 
sound  philosophy. 

5.  If  there  be  one  science  to  which  the  maxims 
of  the  Baconian  Philosophy  are  more  emphatically 
applicable  than  another,  that  science  is  Theology. 
For,  not  to  speak  at  present  of  the  Book  of 
Revelation,  let  us  but  reflect  how  very  small  a 
portion  of  its  contents  in  the  book  of  Nature  is 
accessible  to  man.  As  in  the  Christian  Theology, 
we  are  charged  against  being  wise  above  that 
which  is  written ;  so,  in  the  Natural  Theology,  it 
behoves  us  not  to  be  confident  or  vainly  conjectural 
above  that  which  is  at  all  clearly  or  distinctly  legi- 
ble to  human  eyes.  There  seems  enough  in  the 
system  of  visible  things  to  impress  the  conviction 
of  design  in  the  formation  of  it — and  so  the  con- 
viction of  a  Designer,  of  a  reigning  mind  that  has 
the  intelligence  to  devise  and  the  power  to  execute 
its  purposes.  But  how  little  a  way  does  the  light 
of  experience  carry  us,  in  our  attempts  to  divine 
what  these  purposes  mainly  and  ultimately  are. 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  255 

We  can  discern  many  a  specific  aim  in  nature. 
There  is  no  mistaking,  for  example,  the  intention 
of  the  Creator  in  the  position  of  the  teeth  of 
animals;  which  have  obviously  been  fixed  where 
they  are,  instead  of  being  protruded  by  a  blind 
physical  energy  into  useless  excrescences  on  other 
parts  of  the  body — with  the  express  view  of  pre- 
paring the  food  for  those  ulterior  processes  which 
it  undergoes,  in  the  sustentation  of  an  organic 
being.  But  though  we  see  a  specific  meaning  in 
this  and  a  thousand  other  adaptations,  there  may 
yet  be  nothing  which  can  lead  us  to  comprehend 
the  great  and  general  meaning  of  the  whole — what 
may  be  called  the  grand  moving  purpose  of  a 
creation,  which  so  teems  with  innumerable  births, 
and  which  plies  its  successive  stages  through  the 
unvaried  rounds  of  growth  and  decay  and  dissolu- 
tion and  revival.  We  distinctly  enough  see  the 
use  of  those  expedients  by  which  one  generation 
of  living  creatures  is  carried  forwards  from  infancy 
to  death,  and  leaves  another  generation  behind  it 
to  perform  the  same  cycle  of  functions  and  enjoy- 
ments during  the  course  of  its  ephemeral  being. 
We  might  discern  the  most  unequivocal  signatures 
of  mind  in  that  system  of  expedients  by  which  one 
such  rotation  is  accomplished ;  and  yet  to  the  eyes 
of  nature  there  may  be  mystery  ;  most  hopeless 
unfathomable  mystery  as  to  the  originating  prin- 
ciple which  prompted  the  establishment  of  these 
rotations,  or  as  to  the  ultimate  design  in  which 
they  are  to  terminate.  We  may  clearly  see  a 
thousand  special  contrivances  for  as  many  special 
accommodations — and  yet  there  be  altogether  un- 


256  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

known  to  us  that  grand  comprehensive  secret, 
which  would  explain  what  may  be  termed  the 
policy  of  Creation.  We  are  lost  among  the 
countless  ingenuities  of  a  Mechanism  of  which  we 
form  a  part,  and  each  of  them  giving  palpable 
indication  of  the  wisdom  in  which  they  originated. 
— But  when  we  attempt,  with  no  other  resources 
than  those  of  our  own  fancy,  to  guess  at  the  drift 
of  the  whole  mechanism,  or  to  assign  the  mighty 
consummation  for  which  its  author  did  intend  it — . 
it  is  then  that  baffled  in  the  enterprise,  we  feel  the 
force  of  that  remarkable  expression — "  the  mystery 
of  God." 

6.  In  the  science  of  Theology  beyond  all  the 
other  sciences,  it  is  the  part  of  man  to  quit  all 
gratuitous  speculations  of  his  own ;  and  limit  him- 
self to  the  findings  of  information  and  experience. 
It  is  there,  if  anywhere,  that  the  excursive  spirit 
of  man  is  arrested  by  a  strong  impassable  barrier 
between  the  known  and  the  unknown.  There  are 
two  obvious  reasons  for  this — First,  the  narrow 
sphere  of  his  own  observations,  when  compared 
with  the  amplitude  of  Creation.  Second,  the 
ephemeral  duration  of  his  being,  when  compared 
with  the  eternity  of  the  Creator%  In  either  way  he 
finds  himself  surrounded  by  a  vast  terra  incognita^ 
the  depths  and  mysteries  of  a  region  to  him  inac- 
cessible. His  wisdom  in  these  circumstances  is 
not  to  fancy  where  he  has  not  found,  not  to  pro- 
nounce where  he  does  not  know — and,  should  any 
light  break  in  upon  him  from  this  darkness,  to 
submit  to  its  guidance  and  be  satisfied  to  learn. 
"It  ought  to  be  inculcated  upon  all  men,"  says 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.    257 

De  Luc,  "  that,  next  to  the  positive  knowledge  of 
things  which  may  be  known,  the  most  important 
science  is  to  know  how  to  be  ignorant.  *  I  don't 
know'  ought  to  be  a  frequent  answer  of  all  teachers 
to  their  pupils,  to  accustom  them  to  make  the  same 
answer  without  feeling  ashamed."  The  following 
appears  to  us  a  golden  maxim,  and  of  inestimable 
price  in  what  might  be  called  the  General  Logic 
or  Metaphysics  of  Theology.  "  To  know  that 
we  cannot  know  certain  things  is  in  itself  positive 
knowledge  and  a  knowledge  of  the  most  safe  and 
valuable  nature ;  and  to  abide  by  that  cautionary 
knowledge,  is  infinitely  more  conducive  to  our 
advancement  in  truth,  than  to  exchange  it  for  any 
quality  of  conjecture  or  speculation."*  There  are 
few  services  of  greater  value  to  the  cause  of  know- 
ledge, than  the  delineation  of  its  boundaries.  It 
saves  all  that  fatigue  and  waste  of  effort  which  are 
incurred,  by  our  stray  excursions  among  the  phan- 
tasmata  of  an  unknow#land.  Above  all,  it  puts 
out  every  false  light  by  which  the  light  of  evidence 
might  be  overborne — and  the  labour  of  actual 
discovery  is  greatly  lessened,  when  the  search  is 
narrowed  by  confinement  within  the  limits  of  pos- 
sible discovery.  Man  has  learned  much  faster  ever 
since  Lord  Bacon  told  him  how  little  he  could 
know — or,  in  other  words,  since,  reclaimed  from 
the  territory  of  impracticable  speculation,  he  has 
concentrated  his  efforts  within  that  margin  which 
skirts  and  terminates  the  whole  field  of  attainable 
knowledge.      This  is  a  most  valuable  habit  in  all 

•  Granville  Penn. 


258  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  GOD, 

science.      In  the  science  of  Theology  it  is  ines- 
timable. 

7.  And,  to  recur  for  a  moment  to  the  two  great 
reasons  why  that  humility  which  is  so  philosophical 
in  all  the  departments  of  human  inquiry  is  most 
peculiarly  so  in  our  own — the  first  being  that  the 
field  of  man's  certainty  is  of  such  littleness  in  space, 
the  second  that  it  is  of  such  littleness  in  time. 
Each  in  fact  is  but  an  infinitesimal,  when  compared, 
either  with  Immensity  on  the  one  hand,  or  with 
Eternity  on  the  other.  The  enlargement  of  modern 
discovery  has  not  abated  the  force  of  the  first  of 
these  reasons,  but  has  rather  enhanced  or  given  it 
greater  meaning  and  emphasis  than  before.  That 
telescope  which  has  opened  our  way  to  suns  and 
systems  innumerable,  leaves  the  moral  administra- 
tion connected  with  them  in  deepest  secrecy.  It 
has  made  known  to  us  the  bare  existence  of  other 
worlds;  but  it  would  require  another  instrument 
of  discovery,  ere  we  could  ^derstand  their  relation 
to  ourselves,  as  products  of  the  same  Almighty 
Hand,  as  parts  or  members  of  a  family  under  the 
same  Paternal  Guardianship.  This  more  extended 
survey  of  the  Material  Universe  just  tells  us  how 
little  we  know  of  the  Moral  or  Spiritual  Universe. 
It  reveals  nothing  to  us  of  the  worlds  that  roll  in 
space  but  the  bare  elements  of  Motion  and  Magni- 
tude and  Number — and  so  leaves  us  at  a  more 
hopeless  distance  from  the  secret  of  the  Divine 
administration,  than  when  we  reasoned  of  the 
Earth  as  the  Universe,  of  our  species  as  the  alone 
rational  family  of  God  that  He  had  implicated  with 
body,  or  placed  hi  the  midst  of  a  corporeal  system. 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  259 

The  politics  of  a  family  bear  a  larger  proportion 
to  that  of  an  empire,  than  what  in  reference  to  the 
jurisprudence  of  God  may  be  called  the  politics  of 
a  single  world  to  that  of  the  universe.  Our 
discovery  of  the  extent  of  Creation  has  just  thrown 
a  deeper  obscurity  over  the  counsels  of  the  Creator. 
It  has  made  the  problem  of  His  administration  one 
of  greater  darkness  and  difficulty  than  before.  In 
proportion  to  the  vastness  of  His  dominion,  do  we 
feel  an  inadequacy  to  comprehend  the  measures  or 
the  mysteries  of  His  government.  The  question  is 
now  immeasurably  widened,  because  complicated 
with  other,  and  for  aught  we  know  innumerable 
relationships.  We  might  have  hoped  to  conquer 
or  resolve  the  mystery  of  one  isolated  world — but 
not  when  involved  in  a  scheme  that  is  comprehensive 
of  all  worlds.  We  know  but  in  part ;  and  every 
new  revelation  which  Astronomy  has  made  of  the 
amplitudes  around  us,  just  tells  us  more  emphati- 
cally than  before  of  the  insignificance  of  that  part, 
or  the  littleness  of  all  we  know  in  relation  to  the 
mighty  whole.  It  conveys  a  most  impressive  rebuke 
on  man's  presumptuous  imaginations;  and  should 
teach  him,  that,  profoundly  ignorant  as  he  is  of  that 
high  regime  which  embraces  all  and  subordinates  all, 
his  true  wisdom  lies  in  giving  up  every  gratuitous 
fancy  of  his  own,  and  being  the  passive  subject  of 
the  information  that  is  offered  to  him. 

8.  It  is  of  importance  here  to  remark  that  the 
enlargement  of  our  knowledge  in  all  the  natural 
sciences,  so  far  from  adding  to  our  presumption, 
should  only  give  a  profounder  sense  of  our  natural 
incapacity  and    ignorance    in  reference    to    the 


260  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

bcience  of  Theology.  It  is  just  as  if  in  studying 
the  policy  of  some  earthly  monarch  we  had  made 
the  before  unknown  discovery  of  other  empires 
and  distant  territories  which  belonged  to  him, 
whereof  we  knew  nothing  but  the  existence  and 
the  name.  This  might  complicate  the  study  with- 
out making  the  object  of  it  at  all  more  compre- 
hensible. And  so  of  every  new  wonder  which 
philosophy  might  lay  open  to  the  gaze  of  inquirers. 
It  might  give  us  a  larger  perspective  of  the  creation 
than  before,  yet  in  fact,  cast  a  deeper  shade  of 
obscurity  over  the  counsels  and  ways  of  the  Creator. 
We  might  at  once  obtain  a  deeper  insight  into  the 
secrets  of  the  workmanship — and  yet  feel,  and 
legitimately  feel,  to  be  still  more  deeply  out  of 
reach,  the  secret  purposes  of  Him  who  worketh  all 
in  all.  Every  discovery  of  an  addition  to  the 
greatness  of  His  works  may  bring  with  it  an  addi- 
tion to  the  unsearchableness  of  His  ways.  This 
will  explain  how  it  is  that  with  those  philosophers 
who  add  soundness  to  talent,  which  by  the  way  are 
very  different  things  even  as  judgment  and  genius 
are  different,  every  accession  to  their  knowledge 
brings  with  it  an  accession,  not  to  their  pride,  but 
to  their  modesty.  Each  discovery  they  make  in 
the  volume  of  His  works,  instead  of  clearing  only 
serves  to  thicken  as  it  were,  the  moral  enigma  of 
the  Almighty's  government — and  so  it  leads  them 
but  to  inquire  all  the  more  reverently  at  the 
volume  of  His  word.  This  may  let  us  somewhat 
into  the  secret  of  their  unmoved  or  rather  con- 
firmed and  established  Christianity,  in  such  men 
as  Newton  and  Boyle — which  stands  forth  in  most 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  261 

beautiful  and  effective  contrast  with  the  arrogant 
infidelity  of  later  and  lesser  men.  We  may  here 
perceive  the  difference  between  a  first  and  a  second- 
rate  philosophy,  and  how  thoroughly  at  one  the 
soundest  philosophy  is  with  the  soundest  faith. 

9.  And  an  argument  equally  impressive,  and 
to  the  same  effect,  may  be  founded  on  the  con- 
sideration of  man's  littleness  in  time — even  though 
carried  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  individual 
being,  and  upward  to  the  confines  of  remotest 
history.  All  that  we  know  is,  at  greatest,  but  a 
temporary  evolution  in  the  schemes  and  processes 
of  that  Divinity  who  is  from  everlasting.  We  can  look 
but  a  short  way,  and  through  an  obscure  medium, 
to  the  duration  that  is  past ;  and  a  still  shorter 
way,  through  a  still  profounder  obscurity,  to  the 
duration  that  is  before  us.  And  were  it  not  tre- 
mendous presumption  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 
counsels  of  Him,  who  unites  in  His  wondrous 
Person  and  His  wondrous  plans  both  extremes  of 
Eternity  ?  We  have  access  to  but  one  or  two 
intermediate  links  of  a  progression  that  is  endless 
— nor  can  we  pronounce  either  on  the  wisdom  and 
efficacy  of  existing  means,  or  on  the  nature  of  the 
consummation  in  which  all  is  to  terminate.  Even 
in  the  transitions  which  are  before  our  eyes,  there 
is  nothing  which,  apart  from  experience,  can  lead 
us  to  anticipate  from  the  first  germ  or  embryo  of 
things  what  shall  be  the  coming  development ; 
and  can  we  therefore,  from  the  ephemerical  obser- 
vation of  a  few  fleeting  ages,  confidently  reason  on 
the  winding  up  of  the  universal  drama,  or  the  full 
and  final  development  of  all  things?     We  see  a 


262   on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

beauteous  expansion  coming  forth  of  the  death- 
like Chrysalis ;  and  a  wide  spread  efflorescence  of 
glory  over  the  whole  landscape  issuing  afresh  from 
a  soil  which  owes  its  fertility  to  loathsome  putre- 
faction ;  and  the  sublimest  virtues  in  the  moral 
world  nurtured  into  maturity  and  strength  by  dark 
misfortune  or  the  still  darker  vices  wherewith  it  is 
contiguous — and  just  as  of  old  a  goodly  world  is 
said  to  have  emerged  from  a  chaos,  we  know  not 
among  the  births  of  this  labouring  creation,  what 
beauty  and  blissfulness  are  afterwards  to  ensue 
from  amid  the  warring  elements  which  encompass 
us,  and  which  look  so  inextricable.  Man  is  but  a 
learner  among  the  mysteries  which  surround  him ; 
and  his  part  is  the  docility  of  a  learner.  Whether 
we  regard  the  littleness  of  his  narrow  sphere,  or 
the  littleness  of  his  passing  day — we  see  him 
closely  hemmed  on  all  sides  by  the  limit  which 
separates  the  known  from  the  unknown.  His  true 
Philosophy  is  a  sense  of  his  own  utter  inability  to 
penetrate  the  gloom  that  lies  beyond  it — and 
should  the  light  of  any  manifestation  arise  in  the 
midst  of  this  darkness,  its  disclosures  should  be  as 
much  more  precious  in  his  eyes,  as  the  stable 
realities  of  Truth  and  Nature  are  of  surpassing 
worth  to  all  self-willed  or  speculative  imaginations. 
10.  And  just  as  by  thus  keeping  in  the  path  of 
sober  investigation,  we  have  found  a  more  grace- 
ful and  magnificent  Philosophy  than  we  ever  could 
have  feigned — there  is  reason  to  hope  that  by  a 
like  sacrifice  we  shall  arrive  at  a  like  result  in 
Theology.  Let  us*  seek  Truth  first — and  all 
other  things  shall  be  added  unto  us.     What  we 


ON  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.    263 

pioneer  our  way  to  through  the  toils  of  a  thorny 
and  laborious  research,  will  have  a  beauty  and  a 
greatness  that  were  never  realized  even  in  the 
most  splendid  conjectures  of  theory.  In  exchange 
for  all  those  charms  which  we  forego  at  the  outset, 
and  which  would  have  lured  us  from  the  right 
walk,  we  shall  at  length  reach  a  system  of  magni- 
ficence which  man  might  discover,  but  which  man 
could  never  have  devised.  The  plastic  and  airy 
formations  of  his  imaginative  spirit  will  fall  im- 
measurably short,  even  in  the  attributes  of  the 
sublime  or  the  graceful,  of  that  which  bears  upon 
it  the  actual  impress  of  the  Divinity — which  is 
lighted  by  His  all-comprehensive  mind,  or  reveals 
to  us,  though  in  part,  the  counsels  of  an  adminis- 
tration that  extends  to  all  worlds,  and  has  its  full 
and  final  development  in  the  consummations  of 
Eternity.  So  that  were  it  but  to  recreate  his 
fancy  by  beauteous  and  noble  spectacles,  he  should, 
in  Theology  too,  become  an  experimental  inquirer. 
The  labour  of  the  spirit  should  go  before — the 
luxury  of  the  spirit  will  come  afterwards.  Let  him 
first  learn  ;  and  then  let  him  luxuriate.  It  is  the 
humble  disciple  whether  in  Theology  or  in  Science 
who  shall  be  exalted  in  due  time.  There  may 
be  no  images  of  glory  at  the  outset  of  this  ex- 
perimental path — but  an  imperishable  glory  shaU 
je  its  rere-ward. 

11.  But  the  time  for  the  most  direct  application 
of  this  principle  is  at  our  transition  from  the 
Natural  to  the  Christian  Theology;  and  when  with 
but  the  humble  and  limited  acquirements  of  the 
one,  we  enter  on  the  larger  manifestations  of  the 


264  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

other.  We  trust  it  will  then  become  palpa'tl?, 
that  the  same  sound  Philosophy  which  directs  &a 
entire  and  unqualified  submission  to  the  lessons  of 
experience  in  studying  the  Volume  of  Nature, 
directs  the  like  entireness  of  submission  to  the 
lessons  of  criticism  in  studying  the  Volume  of 
Revelation;  and  that  just  as  we  should  defer, 
though  it  be  with  the  sacrifice  of  all  our  precon- 
ceptions, to  the  actual  phenomena  of  Nature — so 
should  we  defer,  though  at  the  expense  of  as  large 
a  sacrifice,  to  the  actual  sayings  of  Scripture.  We 
think  it  will  then  be  easy  to  demonstrate  the  perfect 
identity  of  those  mental  habitudes  in  an  inquirer — 
which  lead  in  the  one  instance  to  a  sound  philo- 
sophy, and  in  the  other  instance  to  a  sound  faith — 
and  that  what  experimental  knowledge  is  in  science, 
Biblical  knowledge  is  in  divinity.  But  meanwhile, 
and  before  we  have  finished  our  lucubrations  on 
Natural  Theism,  we  deem  it  right  to  have  adverted 
thus  far  to  a  principle  to  the  guidance  of  which  we 
cannot  betake  ourselves  too  early;  and  the  neglect 
of  which  in  fact,  has  carried  the  Theology  of 
Nature,  or  rather  the  academic  Theology  of  our 
schools,  greatly  beyond  the  limits  of  truth  and 
safety.  In  passing,  as  we  do  now,  from  the  argu- 
ment which  respects  the  Being  of  a  God,  to  the 
argument  which  respects  His  attributes  and  His 
ways,  we  cannot  fail  to  notice  a  certain  confidence 
of  speculation,  which  in  our  opinion,  transgresses 
and  transgresses  greatly — the  limit  between  the 
known  and  the  unknown.  We  hold  it  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  this  Natural  Theism  should 
be  set  forth  in  its  actual  dimensions — there  being, 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  265 

ro any,  on  the  one  hand,  who  ascribe  to  it  a  suffi- 
ciency and  a  strength,  that  would  leave  a  Gospel 
uncalled  for;  and  there  being  a  few,  upon  the 
other,  who  regard  it  as  little  better  than  the  base- 
less fabric  of  a  vision.  We  think  that  it  has  a 
basement,  and  the  fragments  beside  of  a  certain 
humble  superstructure,  marred,  misshapen,  and 
ruinous.  But  we  also  think  that  its  disciples  are 
greatly  too  aspiring — and  that  they  have  raised  its 
pretensions  far  beyond  the  measure  of  its  powers. 
12.  As  a  specimen  of  the  rashness  to  which  we 
now  advert,  let  us  instance  one'  of  the  current 
maxims  of  this  Theology — that  it  is  the  character- 
istic of  Wisdom  to  accomplish  its  ends  by  the 
simplest  of  possible  means.  In  the  workmanship 
of  God  then,  possessed  as  He  is  of  the  most  perfect 
Wisdom,  we  should  expect  the  greatest  simplicity ; 
and  more  especially  the  fewest  possible  causes,  or 
that  no  more  should  be  set  in  operation  than  were 
necessary  or  at  least  expedient  for  the  production 
of  a  given  effect.  It  is  thus  certainly  that  we  form 
our  estimate  of  human  art;  and  should  admire 
above  all  others  the  genius  of  the  man  who  could 
simplify  a  machine  by  dispensing  with  some  of  its 
parts,  while  its  powers  remained  in  every  way  as 
effective  as  before.  The  greater  the  result  in  fact 
and  the  simpler  the  instrumental  apparatus,  the 
higher  homage  do  we  pay  to  the  inventive  faculties 
of  its  author — and  we  might  therefore  expect  the 
most  striking  exemplifications  of  this  combined 
simplicity  and  power,  in  the  productions  of  that 
Supreme  Artificer,  who,  beside  the  most  consum- 
mate skill,  has  an  infinity  of  resources  at  commantL 

VOL.  II.  M 


266    on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

Now,  though  in  certain  departments  of  Creation 
we  are  presented  with  noble  specimens  of  this,  yet, 
in  far  the  greater  number  of  instances,  there  seems 
what  one  might  be  led  to  regard  as  a  useless  com- 
plexity— not  useless  in  reference  to  the  actual 
constitution  of  things  y  but  useless  in  reference  to 
the  powers  of  Him  who  ordained  that  constitution, 
and,  might,  had  it  so  pleased  Him,  have,  by  means 
of  another  constitution  and  a  far  simpler  economy,, 
wrought  out,  we  are  apt  to  imagine,  the  great  end 
or  ends  of  His  creation.  We  must  admit  of  as- 
tronomy that  it  offers  the  finest  examples  of  this 
alliance  between  simplicity  and  greatness — more 
especially  in  that  beautiful  planetarium  which  set 
a-going  by  one  impulse,  and  animated  by  one 
simple  force,  contrasts  so  advantageously  with  the 
ethereal  whirlpools,  and  the  complicated  cycles 
and  epicycles  of  human  imagination.  We  cannot 
afford  to  expatiate  on  the  variety  of  great  and 
good  results  that  come  forth  of  the  one  law  of 
gravitation — else,  beside  the  leading  planetary 
movements,  we  might  have  noticed  among  other 
effects,  the  power  of  each  planet  to  compel  the 
attendance  of  secondaries — those  lamps  on  the 
roof  of  night  which  afford  so  beauteous  a  supple- 
ment to  the  day's  accommodation ;  and  the  power 
of  those  secondaries  on  the  other  hand,  not  to 
enlighten  only  but  to  produce  wholesome  agitation 
in  the  sea  and  atmosphere  of  planets,  by  means  of 
tides  in  the  air  and  tides  in  the  ocean.  Another 
splendid  example  of  a  mighty  consequence  emerg- 
ing from  a  simple  cause,  is  that  the  mere  inclination 
of  a  line  to  a  plane  should  give  rise  to  the  bene- 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  267 

ficent  round  of  the  seasons,  that  goodly  procession 
in  the  Heavens,  at  every  footstep  of  which  so  many 
precious  influences  both  in  the  way  of  delight  and 
utility  are  shed  upon  our  world.  But,  in  descend- 
ing from  heaven  to  earth,  we  seem  to  lose  sight 
of  all  this  exquisite  geometry — and,  instead  of  one 
condition  being  the  prolific  germ  of  a  thousand 
beneficial  effects,  we  behold  a  thousand  conditions 
indispensable  to  the  production  of  one  benefit. 
Take  for  example  the  organic  structures,  whether 
in  the  animal  or  vegetable  physiology.  What  a 
complex  system  of  means  has  been  devised  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  end  of  their  creation !  When  to 
the  infinite  wisdom  we  add  the  infinite  power  of 
God,  we  can  have  no  doubt  that  He  might,  had 
it  seemed  to  Him  good,  He  might  have  grafted 
the  feeling  and  the  intelligence  and  the  mental 
powers  and  the  capacities  of  enjoyment  which 
characterize  a  rational  and  accountable  creature, 
on  a  simple  elementary  atom.  But,  instead  of 
this,  what  a  complex  instrumentality  that  is  which 
upholds  the  functions  and  faculties  of  a  man — 
what  a  concurrence  must  there  be  of  parts  and 
of  actions  that  he  might  be  enabled  to  move 
and  to  think  and  to  reason  and  to  perform  the 
rounds  for  which  his  Maker  hath  designed  him ! 
It  seems  a  round-about  way  of  arriving  at  the 
formation  of  this  intelligent  creature,  that  he  should 
have  to  be  provided  with  so  complicated  a  frame- 
work for  the  evolution  of  his  powers.  One  feels 
that  the  great  purposes  of  his  being  might  all  have 
been  secured  with  less  expense  as  it  were  of  con- 
trivance and  of  operose  workmanship.     It  looks  as 


268  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

if  the  great  Artificer  had  fallen  in  with  an  imprac- 
ticable subject ;  and  had  put  forth  His  wisdom  and 
power  on  the  task  of  grafting  upon  this  sluggish 
uncomplying  matter,  the  life  and  the  feeling  and 
the  intelligence   which  we  now  find,  through  the 
intervention  of  a  most  intricate  mechanism,  to  be 
so  curiously  blended  with  it.      This  would  repre- 
sent the  Deity  as  if  in  a  state  of  necessity,  and  as 
if  reduced  to  shifts  or  laborious  expedients  for  the 
purpose    of  overcoming  it — as    if   matter  and  its 
essential  properties  stood  so  far  in  the  way  of  the 
divine  purposes — an  imagination  not  certainly  in 
keeping  with  the  doctrine,  that  He  created  this 
matter,  and  endued  it  with  these  properties.      It  is 
some  such  conception  as  this  which  may  have  led 
to  the  Theory  of  an   Eternal   Uncreated  matter 
along  with  an  Eternal  Uncreated  Mind — being  an 
approximation  towards  the  Manichean  System  of  a 
Good   and    Evil    Principle.       Dr.    Paley   speaks 
somewhere  in  his  Natural  Theology  of  a  problem 
having  for  its  data  the  essential  principles  of  matter, 
and  for  its  object  the  production  of  life.      It  is 
announced  in  somewhat  the  usual  form  of,  Given  a 
substance  having  extent  and  divisibility  and  im- 
penetrability  and    passiveness — to    graft   vitality 
thereupon.      But  still  the  marvel  is  that  first  God 
should  by  his  own  spontaneous  choice,  have  origin- 
ated into  being  such  a  mass  and  power  of  resistance 
to  a  desirable  effect,  and  then  had  recourse  to  such 
manifold  and  multiform  devices  for  the  purpose  of 
overcoming  it.    It  seems  like  going  out  of  the  way, 
or  like  a  very  indirect  and  circuitous  method  of 
arriving  at  a  result.     There  is  a  marvellous  display 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  269 

of  skill  and  power  in  conquering  the  difficulty — but 
the  surpassing  marvel  is  that  it  should  be  a  difficulty 
which  Himself  had  created.  The  expectation  that 
under  a  regime  of  Infinite  wisdom,  the  greatest 
ends  are  brought  about  by  the  simplest  of  means, 
is  to  all  appearance  violated  in  the  case  of  every 
physiological  structure.  And  the  confident  maxim 
that  such  a  simplicity  best  comports  with  the 
highest  intelligence  would  therefore  appear  to  land 
us  in  a  reflection  against  the  attributes  of  the 
Deity. 

13.  There  is  nothing  however  in  this  train  of 
reflection,  which  can  invalidate  the  argument  for 
the  existence  of  a  God,  possessed  of  inimitable 
skill  and  power,  and  who  has  put  forth  these 
attributes  on  the  formation  of  the  many  exquisite 
structures  which  are  before  our  eyes.  All  the 
efforts  of  human  art  cannot  approximate  even  by 
the  most  distant  imitation  to  the  execution  of  such 
mechanism,  as  we  see  diversified  into  many  thou- 
sands of  distinct  specimens  both  in  the  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms ;  and  all  of  which  attest  by 
their  manifold  collocations,  that  they  had  been 
designed  in  the  counsels,  and  formed  by  the  fingers  of 
an  Artificer,  whose  thoughts  are  not  as  our  thoughts 
and  whose  ways  are  not  as  our  ways.  It  is  a 
very  profound  enigma  to  us,  why  the  actual  matter 
of  the  world  should  require  such  peculiar  treatment, 
ere  it  can  be  vivified  either  into  an  animal  or 
vegetable.  Yet  there  is  an  unquestionable  good 
in  such  a  constitution  of  things.  It  yields  to  us 
a  resistless  inference  as  to  the  Being  of  a  God, 
however  much  it  may  darken  the  nature  both  of 


270  on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.        ^ 

His  person  and  policy.  If  on  the  one  hand  to 
accomplish  a  given  result  by  the  fewest  possible 
means  be  an  indication  of  high  wisdom,  it  is  no 
less  an  indication  of  the  same  to  accomplish  it 
even  though  by  a  very  cumbersome  apparatus  of 
means,  if  the  workmanship  had  to  be  done  on  un- 
likely and  unpromising  materials.  Still  it  remains 
a  mystery  why  such  should  be  the  materials — and 
it  is  a  mystery  that  we  cannot  unravel.  The  face  of 
visible  nature  may  be  regarded  as  an  impenetrable 
canvas,  behind  which  its  Author  has  withdrawn 
Himself  from  the  view  of  mortals — yet  not  with- 
out imprinting  such  curious  and  high  wrought 
embroidery  upon  it,  as  bespeaks  a  great  force  of 
intelligence  and  power  within  the  vail.  We  can 
offer  no  absolute  solution  of  the  question  why  it 
is  that  He  should  so  hide  Himself,  or  why  it  is 
that  the  matter  which  Himself  has  created  should 
require  a  treatment  so  very  operose  ere  it  can 
subserve  His  own  purposes.  On  whichever  side 
^  we  turn,  we  feel  ourselves  treading  on  the  confines 
of  darkness.  We  may  walk  in  light  or  in  twilight, 
through  what  in  the  book  of  Job  is  called  parts  of 
His  ways.  But  we  soon  come  to  a  region  of 
deepest  secrecy — an  impassable  limit  beyond  which 
lie  the  depths  and  the  mysteries  that  we  cannot 
comprehend. 

14.  We  have  already  said  that  the  enlargement 
of  astronomical  discovery,  while  it  expanded  our 
conceptions  of  the  divine  greatness,  had  just  the 
effect  of  making  the  divine  counsels  more  incom- 
prehensible than,  ever — and  we  now  say  that  the 
complex  adaptations,  the  number  of  contingencies 


271 

which  must  meet  together  for  the  accomplishment 
of  a  desirable  end, — and  on  the  absence  or  the 
failure  of  any  one  of  which,  the  manifold  adjust- 
ments both  of  place  and  of  operation  that  enter 
into  the  products  of  physiology,  and  without  any 
one  of  which  neither  an  animal  nor  a  vegetable 
could  be  sustained — these,  while  they  give  more 
intense  demonstration  to  the  reality  of  an  intelli- 
gence that  framed  the  whole  of  this  exquisite 
mechanism,  have  the  effect  of  casting  over  the 
designs  and  the  processes  of  this  intelligence  a 
deeper  mystery  than  before.  They  more  clearly 
evince  His  Being,  but  they  have  the  effect  of 
making  His  policy  more  inscrutable — and  while 
they  tell  more  emphatically  than  a  simpler  material 
system  would,  that  there  is  a  God — they  go  to 
shroud  the  principle  of  His  creation  in  profounder 
obscurity  from  our  view,  and  to  aggravate  more 
hopelessly  than  ever  the  unsearchableness  of  His 
ways.  It  is  thus  that  no  conceivable  extension 
of  natural  science  would  seem  to  supersede,  but 
rather  to  enhance  the  necessity  of  revelation. 
None  of  her  discoveries,  however  much  they  might 
afford  more  emphatic  demonstration  than  we  pre- 
viously had  of  the  Being  and  Intelligence  of  God, 
none  of  them  can  achieve,  they  do  not  even 
approximate,  to  the  solution  of  the  moral  enigma 
involved  in  the  question  which  relates  to  the  prin- 
ciple or  purpose  of  the  divine  administration. 

15.  We  mean  to  say,  that  if,  under  the  present 
economy,  ten  independent  circumstances  must 
meet  together  for  the  production  of  a  certain  bene- 
ficial effect  instead  of  six,  there  is  all  the  more 


272   on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

intense  evidence  thereby  afforded,  in  the  actual  oc- 
currence of  such  a  combination,  for  the  existence  of 
God.  But  the  very  thing  which  gives  a  brighter 
revelation  of  His  Being,  only  darkens  the  mystery 
of  His  conduct — and  the  question  is  still  unre- 
solved, why  does  the  Almighty,  who,  we  think, 
can  accomplish  all  His  purposes  by  the  utterance 
of  a  word,  why  does  He  choose  rather  to  effectuate 
them  by  methods  so  complex  and  circuitous  ? 
If  it  be  alleged  that  it  is  just  to  evince  more  clearly, 
and  more  convincingly  that  He  is, — another 
question  remains,  why  this  has  not  been  accom- 
plished by  immediate  vision — why  that  has  been 
left  to  inference  which  might  have  been  made  the 
object  of  a  direct  and  instant  manifestation — or 
whv  the  unseen  God  thus  hides  Himself  beneath 
an  impenetrable  veil  of  materialism  from  the  eye 
of  His  creatures  ?  In  short,  we  walk  on  a  margin 
of  incomprehensibles — and  with  all  the  light  which 
we  have  for  assuring  us  of  His  reality,  there  seems 
nought  in  nature  which  can  help  us  to  unravel  the 
mystery  of  His  counsels  and  His  ways.  And  it  is 
well  we  should  know  how  soon  it  is  that  human 
reason  gets  beyond  its  soundings.  The  constant 
and  aspiring  tendency  of  man  is  to  pass  from  the 
investigation  of  the  Quid  to  the  investigation  of 
the  Quomodo.  It  were  well  that  we  felt  aright 
at  what  point  the  inquiry  should  cease — nor  are 
we  aware  of  aught  more  truly  characteristic  both 
of  a  sound  Theologian  and  of  a  sound  Philosopher 
than  to  discriminate  between  the  region  of  accessible 
knowledge,  and  the  ulterior  region  of  the  alike 
unknowable  and  unknown.      Theology  like  every 


ON  MAN  S  LIMITED  KNOWLEDGE  O*   liUU.     273 

other  science  has  its  competent  and  its  incompetent 
questions.  It  were  well  that  we  at  all  times 
observed  the  difference  between  them — and  made 
the  distinction  between  those  which  we  might 
legitimately  entertain,  and  those  to  which  our  best 
possible  answer  is  that  we  cannot  tell. 

16.  It  is  not  to  excite  a  spirit  of  adventurous 
speculation,  but  to  repress  it,  that  we  have  noticed 
one  of  those  difficulties  which  belong  to  Theism — 
though,  it  must  be  admitted,  that,  instead  of  laying 
the  restlessness  of  human  inquiry,  they  have  often 
acted  as  a  provocative  to  minds  of  aspiring  curiosity. 
It  is  to  make  evident  how  short  the  way  of  safety 
and  certainty  is,  along  which  an  excursive  spirit 
can  proceed  on  this  high  subject — and  that,  amid 
the  multitude  of  unresolved  and  unresolvable  ques- 
tions regarding  the  methods  of  the  divine  govern- 
ment, we  should  be  satisfied  in  keeping  within  the 
limits  of  accessible  knowledge,  and  exploring  with 
all  diligence  the  truth  that  one  may  reach,  instead 
of  idly  straining  at  the  truth  which  lies  beyond  it. 
At  most  like  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in  philosophy,  if  we 
do  enter  upon  the  exterior  region  of  mystery  at  all, 
we  should  proceed  no  further  than  to  the  margin — 
where,  instead  of  propositions  in  the  form  of  con- 
fident dicta,  we  should  plant  the  confessions  of  our 
ignorance  in  the  form  of  queries  or  in  the  form  of 
humble  unpretending  desiderata.  To  a  rightly 
constituted  spirit  the  ulterior  darkness,  instead  of 
operating  as  a  stimulus,  will  operate  as  a  sedative 
— that  is,  will  quell  the  appetencies  of  the  mind 
after  that  which  is  hopeless  and  unattainable ;  and 
so  leave  its  energies  entire  for  all  useful,  for  all 
M  2 


274    on  man's  limited  knowledge  op  god. 

discoverable  truth.  An  unpresuming  modesty  of 
spirit  in  reference  to  the  terra  incognita  of  the  human 
understanding,  is  perfectly  at  one  with  the  utmost 
diligence  and  even  daring  of  the  spirit  in  thoroughly 
exploring  the  domain,  and,  if  possible,  extending  the 
limits  of  the  terra  cognita.  It  was  thus  that  in 
physics,  he  who  was  of  all  others  the  most  fearful 
in  pronouncing  on  the  inaccessible  mysteries  beyond 
the  veil,  made  the  freest  and  most  fearless  inquisi- 
tion within  the  field  of  accessible  knowledge,  and 
signalized  himself  the  most  of  his  species  by  the 
additions  to  science  which  he  made  thereupon. 
And  as  in  physics,  so  ought  it  to  be  in  Theology — . 
the  utmost  reserve  in  all  that  is  transcendental,  the 
utmost  research  both  into  the  world  that  is  around, 
and  into  the  world  that  is  nigh  to  us — the  busiest 
examination  of  all  that  is  within  the  range  of  our 
faculties  ;  but,  along  with  this  a  quiescence  of 
spirit  in  the  light  that  we  have,  and  at  most  a 
humble  expectancy  for  more** 

•  This  mental  habitude  was  beautifully  exemplified  by  Robert 
Hall,  and  no  less  beautifully  expounded  in  the  description  of  it  by 
his  friend  John  Foster.  The  following  are  a  few  extracts  from 
Foster's  observations  on  Hall's  character  as  a  preacher  : 

"  Perhaps  it  would  not  have  been  expected  from  Mr.  Hall's 
great  capacity,  that  he  should  be  habitually  indisposed  to  dwell 
or  expatiate  long  near  the  borders  of  the  remoter,  darker  tracts 
of  the  regions  of  religious  contemplation.  Such,  however,  appears 
to  have  been  the  fact."  "  He  was  amply  informed  and  warned, 
by  his  knowledge  of  the  history  of  philosophy  and  theology,  of 
the  mischiefs  of  a  restless,  presumptuous,  interminable  speculation, 
a  projection  of  thought,  beyond  the  limits  of  ascertainable  truth." 
"  The  speculative  process  lost  its  interest  with  him  if  carried  into 
h  direction,  or  if  exceeding  the  limit,  where  it  could  no  longer  be 
subjected  to  the  methods  of  proof;  in  other  words,  where  it 
ceased  to  comprehend  and  reason,  and  turned  into  conjecture, 
sentiment,  and  fancy.     He  eeemed  to  have  no  ambition  to  stretch 


275 

17.  We  cannot  explain  why  under  a  God  of 
infinite  Power,  complex  means  should  be  resorted 

out  his  intellectual  domain  to  an  extent  which  he  could  not 
occupy  and  traverse,  with  some  certainty  of  his  movements  and 
measurements.  His  sphere  was  very  wide,  expanded  to  one  circle 
beyond  another,  at  each  of  which  in  succession  he  left  many  other 
men  behind  him,  arrested  by  their  respective  limits;  but  he  was 
willing  to  perceive,  and  even  desirous  to  verify,  his  own  ultimate 
boundary  ;  and  when  he  came  to  the  line  where  it  was  signified  to 
him  ■  Thus  far  and  no  further,'  he  stopped,  with  apparently 
much  less  of  an  impulse  than  might  have  been  expected  in  so  strong 
a  spirit,  to  seek  an  outlet,  and  attempt  an  irruption  into  the  dubi- 
ous territory  beyond. 

"  With  a  mind  so  constituted  and  governed,  he  was  less  given 
than  many  other  men  of  genius  have  been  to  those  visionary  modes 
of  thought ;  those  musings  exempt  from  all  regulation ;  that 
impatience  of  aspiration  to  reach  the  vast  and  remote ;  that 
fascination  of  the  mysterious,  captivating  by  the  very  circumstance 
of  eluding;  that  fearful  adventuring  on  the  dark,  the  unknown, 
the  awful ;  '  those  thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity,' 
which  have  often  been  at  once  the  luxury  and  the  pain  of  imagin- 
ative and  highly  endowed  spirits,  discontented  with  their  assigned 
lot  in  this  tenebrious  world.  No  doubt,  in  his  case,  piety  would 
have  interfered  to  restrain  such  impatience  of  curiosity,  or  audacity 
of  ambitious  thinking,  or  indignant  strife  against  the  confines  of 
our  present  allotment,  as  would  have  risen  to  a  spirit  of  insubor- 
dination to  the  divine  appointment.  And  possibly  there  were 
times  when  this  interference  was  required  ;  bxit  still  the  structure 
of  his  faculties,  and  the  manner  of  employing  them  to  which  it 
determined  him  contributed  much  to  exempt  him  from  that  passion 
to  go  beyond  the  mortal  sphere  which  would  irreligiously  murmur 
at  the  limitation.  His  acquiescence  did  not  seem  at  least  to  cost 
him  a  strong  effort  of  repression. 

"  This  distinction  of  his  intellectual  character  was  obvious  in  his 
preaching.  He  was  eminently  successful  on  subjects  of  an  elevated 
order,  which  he  would  expand  and  illustrate  in  a  manner  which 
sustained  them  to  the  high  level  of  their  dignity.  This  carried 
him  near  some  point  on  the  border  of  that  awful  darkness  which 
encompasses,  on  all  sides,  our  little  glimmering  field  of  knowledge  ; 
and  then  it  might  be  seen  how  aware  he  was  of  its  approach,  how 
cautiously,  or  shall  I  say  instinctively,  he  was  held  aloof,  how 
sure  not  to  abandon  the  ground  of  evidence,  by  a  hazardous 
incursion  of  conjecture  or  imagination  into  the  unknown.  He 
would  indicate  how  near,  and  in  what  direction  lay  the  shaded 
frontier ;  but  dared  not,  did  not  seem  even  tempted,  to  invade 
1  its  majesty  of  <larkae»*' m- 


276   on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

to  for  the  attainment  of  a  desirable  end — and  neither 
can  we  explain  why  a  lengthened  process  in  time 
should  be  necessary  for  the  same  attainment.  He 
could,  we  might  imagine,  will  the  greatest  possible 
good  into  instant  accomplishment.  Yet  He  does 
not.  Even  within  our  own  little  territory  of 
observation,  we  can  notice  the  progression  of  years 
ere  things  come  to  their  state  of  greatest  perfec- 
tion ;  and,  for  aught  we  know,  it  might  require  the 
mighty  progression  of  centuries,  or  of  still  loftier 
and  more  extended  cycles,  ere  many  of  the  existing 
and  current  plans  in  the  Universe  shall  reach  their 
full  consummation.  Every  thing  seems  to  be  done 
by  progressions.  The  full-grown  tree  is  not  made 
to  arise  in  the  complete  garniture  of  its  fruit  or 
foliage  by  an  instant  act  of  Creation — but,  ere  it 
reaches  its  present  strength  and  altitude,  has  to 
weather  a  series  of  exposures  and  to  undergo  a 
very  gradual  process  of  nourishment  and  accretion. 
The  man  of  full-grown  faculties  does  not  start  into 
immediate  being  at  the  bidding  of  a  voice — but 
reaches  the  maximum  of  his  usefulness  and  vigour, 
through  the  delays  and  difficulties  and  dangers  of  a 
tedious  passage  from  the  outset  of  his  existence, 
and  by  many  successive  stages.  Not  to  speak  of  the 
collective  progress  that  is  made  by  mankind  from 
one  age  to  another  along  the  great  steps  of  a  world's 
history,  the  species  are  not  prepared  for  the  joys 
and  exercises  of  a  complete  society  in  Heaven,  but 
by  the  birth  and  the  transit  and  the  successive 
disappearance  of  many  generations.  With  all  the 
resources  of  Omnipotence,  and  a  goodness  so  entire 
and  unlimited  that  He  has  been  designed  a  God  of 


on  mam's  limited  knowledge  of  god.   277 

love He  might  have  willed,  we  fondly  imagine, 

He  might  have  willed  instanter  into  being  a  full 
and  finished  Paradise,  where  each  rejoicing  in- 
habitant, with  a  beatitude  up  to  the  measure  of 
his  capacity,  might  have  expatiated  from  the  first 
moment  of  his  existence  in  happiness  without  a 
flaw,  and  that  was  to  last  for  ever.  But  this  too 
is  reached  by  a  progression  of  unknown  length  and 
magnitude ;  and  meanwhile  we  live  among  the 
imperfections  of  an  embryo  state,  the  struggles  and 
the  sighs  and  we  may  add  the  sinfulness  of  a  crea- 
tion that  seems  labouring  in  birth,  and  as  if  charged 
with  the  pains  and  the  portents  of  a  coming  re- 
generation. Now  we  should  be  satisfied  to  know 
this  as  a  fact  or  phenomenon,  although  we  should 
not  know  the  principle  of  the  phenomenon.  It  is 
a  great  matter,  when  unable  to  ascertain  how  it  is, 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  assurance  that  so  it  is.  The 
ei)d  is  more  valuable  than  its  means,  and  one  might 
think  that  the  creative  Power  might  have  ordained 
the  end  without  the  stepping-stone  of  means.  But 
it  is  not  so  ordered — for  neither  has  it  dispensed 
with  a  complex  and  extended  instrumentality  in 
space — nor  with  a  lengthened  procedure  in  time. 
The  life  of  man  is  more  valuable  than  the  lungs, 
or  the  heart,  or  any  other  organ  which  has  functions 
to  perform  that  under  our  present  constitution  are 
indispensable  to  vitality — And  God  could,  we 
imagine,  have  willed  this  life  into  direct  action  and 
enjoyment,  without  the  intervention  of  such  an 
elaborate  materialism.  And  in  like  manner,  for 
there  is  an  identity  of  principle  in  the  two  cases, 
the  mature  virtue  and  unsullied  felicity  of  heaven 


278   on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

are  more  valuable  than  the  toils  and  sufferings  of 
an  earthly  pilgrimage — and  God,  armed  as  He  is 
with  a  force  of  execution  which  no  obstacle  can 
withstand,  and  a  benevolence  ample  and  unconfined 
as  the  wide  possibility  of  things,  might  have  willed 
the  consummate  happiness  at  once  without  the 
tardy  preparation.  Now,  in  defect  of  all  our 
endeavours  to  comprehend  the  rationale,  we  should 
acquiesce  like  true  disciples  of  the  philosophy  of 
observation  in  the  facts — that,  instead  of  being 
subtilized  among  the  transcendental  difficulties  of 
the  subject  into  an  airy  speculative  Theology,  we 
might  stop  at  that  limit  beyond  which  if  we  trans- 
gress, we  will  leave  all  that  is  sure  and  sound  in 
Theology  behind  us.  In  short,  it  should  be 
studied  not  by  the  method  of  synthesis  but  by 
the  method  of  analysis — not  by  going  downward 
in  the  science,  with  our  point  of  departure  a  priori, 
or  from  its  assumed  principles ;  but  by  going  up- 
ward in  the  science,  with  our  point  of  departure 
a  posteriori,  or  from  its  observed  phenomena — in 
this  way  treasuring  up  the  ascertained  facts,  nor 
holding  them  less  valuable  because  of  the  unas- 
certained reasons  which  lie  behind  them — satisfied 
with  that  light  of  evidence  which  informs  us  of  the 
what,  however  dim  may  be  that  light  of  theory 
which  informs  us  of  the  why — Let  this  be  our  habit, 
and  we  shall  then  learn  to  wait  and  to  postpone 
our  curiosity,  in  a  multitude  of  questions  to  which 
our  best  and  surest  answer  is  that  we  cannot  tell. 

18.  Ere  we  enter  on  our  brief  exposition  of  the 
Attributes  of  God  as  viewed  in  the  light  of  Natural 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  279 

Theology — let  us,  in  the  spirit  we  are  now  recom- 
mending, propose  a  few  considerations  on  the 
subject  of  certain  difficulties  which  regard  His 
character  and  ways.  The  object,  we  repeat,  is 
not  to  encourage  temerity  of  speculation  but  to 
repress  it — that,  abstaining  from  matters  too  high 
for  us,  we  may  keep  on  that  humbler  track  where 
there  is  both  a  steady  light  and  a  firm  pathway. 

19.  The  difficulties  to  which  we  refer  stand  all 
related  to  the  imagination,  that  where  there  is  a 
Creator  of  infinite  power  united  with  infinite  good- 
ness, there  should  be  a  creation  of  instant  and 
universal  blessedness.  Now  they  are  the  exceptions 
to  this  which  have  ministered  so  much  perplexity 
to  the  speculatists  in  theological  science.  They 
seem  to  impair  the  omnipotence  or  the  benevo- 
lence of  God ;  and  it  is  in  the  attempt  to  reconcile 
existing  appearances  with  the  one  or  other  of  these 
attributes,  that  so  many  an  adventurous  flight  has 
been  taken  into  the  region  of  transcendentals. 
Now,  without  any  attempt  at  a  positive  reconcilia- 
tion, we  think  that  we  can  adduce  so  much  as 
should  lead  us  to  keep  the  whole  question  in 
abeyance.  Without  offering  to  throw  light  upon 
the  question,  we  shall  do  enough  if  we  simply 
neutralize  it.  There  is  many  a  conceivable  topic 
of  human  thought  regarding  which  there  is  an 
utter  want  of  evidence  either  on  the  one  side  or  on 
the  other — in  which  case  if  it  do  not  help,  neither 
should  it  hinder  our  conviction  upon  other  topics 
that  are  shone  upon  by  evidence,  and  which  lie 
accessible  to  human  inquiry.  A  thing  may  be 
far  removed  from  us  in  ulterior  darkness,  like  a 


280    on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

body  in  the  Heavens  beyond  the  range  of  our 
telescopes.  In  virtue  of  its  situation  we  can 
attain  to  no  positive  knowledge  of  it.  But  it  ought 
to  be  well  remembered  too,  that,  in  virtue  of  this 
very  situation,  it  stands  disarmed  of  all  power  to 
disturb  our  conclusions  respecting  the  things  which 
are  near  us  and  within  the  confines  of  observation. 
The  imagination  of  things  beyond  the  telescope, 
can  surely  have  no  effect  on  the  views  or  informa- 
tions of  other  things  which  are  given  us  by  the 
telescope.  And  the  same  is  true  of  many,  of 
very  many  topics  in  Theology.  They  lie  ulterior 
to  our  range — not  merely  beyond  the  outskirts  of 
Natural  Theology,  a  domain  which  may  be  said  to 
comprehend  all  that  can  be  seen  by  the  naked  eye 
of  the  mind — but  also  beyond  the  outskirts  of  the 
Christian  Theology,  that  wider  and  larger  domain, 
which  has  been  opened  up  to  our  view  by  the 
mental  or  spiritual  telescope  of  revelation.  To 
attempt  the  comprehension  of  such  a  topic  by  the 
former  light,  were  to  enter  on  a  task  above  the 
powers  of  nature.  To  attempt  the  comprehension 
of  it  by  the  latter  light,  were  to  attempt  being  wise 
above  that  which  is  written.  But  the  very  recon- 
diteness  which  precludes  a  transcendental  topic  from 
being  ever  turned  into  an  affirmative  doctrine,  also 
nullifies  it  as  a  disturbing  force  by  which  to  weaken 
or  to  change  our  belief  in  other  doctrines.  This 
principle,  if  rightly  applied,  would  prove  a  safe- 
guard against  many  of  the  delusions  of  sophistry 
and  scepticism.  There  may  be  a  vast,  an  intermin- 
able number  of  questions,  started  in  Theology,  of 
such  an  unresoh  able  character  that  all  the  friends 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  281 

of  religion  cannot  make  out  of  them  an  argument 
for  any  positive  article  in  the  creed — but  neither, 
on  the  other  hand,  can  the  enemies  of  Religion 
make  out  of  them  an  argument,  by  which  to  dis- 
place or  in  any  way  to  deduct  from  the  strength 
and  authority,  of  a  single  article  that  is  there. 
We  should  count  it  enough  if  the  origin  of  evil 
were  reduced  to  this  description  of  questions.  We 
offer  no  positive  solution  of  the  problem.  We  should 
be  satisfied,  if  it  were  simply  put  hors  de  combat 
— and  if  abiding  unresolved  for  ever  in  this  world, 
it  left  us  but  at  liberty  to  appropriate  the  truth 
within  our  reach,  and  to  walk  in  the  light  of  the 
actual  evidence  that  is  around  us. 

20.  Now  for  this  purpose  it  is  not  needed  that 
we  should  solve  the  question.  It  is  enough  that, 
in  the  mean  time,  we  should  suspend  it  or  put  it 
to  sleep — and  the  most  effectual  method,  we  hold, 
of  doing  so,  were  to  show  cause — why,  with  our 
present  degree  of  light,  it  should  yet  be  regarded 
as  altogether  a  question  too  high  for  us. 

2 1 .  There  is  nothing  which  more  inclines  our- 
selves to  leave  it  upon  such  a  footing,  than  the 
unwarrantable  presumption  both  of  the  religionists 
and  the  irreligionists  upon  this  question.  When 
combatants  are  found  to  draw  alike  the  matter  of 
their  speculation  from  a  region  of  unfathomable 
mystery  beyond  them,  there  may  be  any  thing  but 
l^ght  thrown  upon  their  controversy — but  still 
there  is  a  great  deal  made  out,  if  it  can  be  shown 
that  there  are  assumptions  of  equal  hazard  and 
uncertainty  on  both  sides.  In  this  way,  they 
countervail   each   other — and   their  best  wisdom 


282   on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god. 

were  a  mutual  retirement  from  the  field,  and  with 
this  principle,  that  a  controversy  which  cannot  be 
settled  should  just  be  let  alone. 

22.  We  hold  it  greatly  better,  on  the  one  hand, 
for  the  religionists  to  attempt  no  positive  or  confi- 
dent solution  of  the  problem — and,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  three  distinct  considerations  which 
might  tend,  we  think,  to  nullify  the  argument  by 
which  the  irreligionists  have  attempted  through  the 
means  of  this  difficulty  to  subserve  the  cause  of 
scepticism. 

23.  The  first  is,  that  when  they  assume  the 
omnipotence  of  God  as  a  reason  for  expecting  no 
evil  in  the  Universe — seeing  that  God  could  have 
caused  it  to  be  otherwise  if  He  would — they 
assume  a  principle  which  must  be  received  with 
certain  qualifications.  It  is  no  aspersion  of  His 
dignity  but  the  opposite,  when  v/e  affirm  that 
there  are  certain  things  which  God  cannot  do. 
We  read  in  a  Book  the  authority  of  which  we  trust 
afterwards  to  demonstrate,  that  He  cannot  lie.  This 
is  one  limit  to  the  universality  of  their  assertion, 
though  no  limit  but  the  contrary  and  on  the  perfec- 
tions of  God.  It  is  not  a  physical  but  a  moral 
necessity  which  makes  His  utterance  of  a  falsehood 
impossible.  It  is  not  because  He  has  not  strength 
for  the  utterance;  but  it  is  the  very  strength  of 
His  character  which  restrains  it,  and  puts  it  forth 
as  it  were  beyond  the  domain  of  possible  things. 
It  is  not  because  He  is  short  of  omnipotence  that 
He  cannot  lie — for  there  is  the  force  of  omnipo- 
tence in  His  recoil  from  such  a  violence  to  his 
moral  nature.     He  cannot  because  He  will  not — 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  283 

and  if  this  be  called  impotency,  it  is  an  impotency 
which  exalts  the  Deity,  and  thrones  Him  in  charac- 
ter of  more  awful  reverence. 

24.  But  secondly,  it  is  doing  violence  to  the 
right  or  philosophical  order  of  our  conceptions — 
it  is  not  viewing  matters  according  to  their  actual 
precedency,  when  the  Divine  Will  is  regarded  as 
the  first  source  of  all  things.  God  did  not  will 
Himself  into  existence — and  neither  did  He  will 
the  character  or  constitution  of  the  Godhead.  We 
almost  feel  an  oppression  upon  our  spirit  when  we 
thus  lift  our  regards  to  the  primeval  fountain- 
head  of  Being.  Yet  it  is  surely  more  logical  to 
say  that  He  wills  according  to  His  nature,  than 
that  He  willed  His  nature.  In  other  words  His 
nature  is  a  higher  fountain-head  than  His  will. 
And  is  it  for  us  to  prove  the  secrecies  of  this  un- 
derived,  this  uncreated  nature — or  to  say  whether 
there  are  not  deep  laid  necessities  there,  under 
which,  a  God,  even  of  boundless  perfection,  may 
have  seen  reason  to  command  into  being  such  a 
Universe  as  ours  ?  Can  we  scale  those  mysterious 
altitudes  along  which  we  are  conducted  to  the 
First  Origin  of  Things;  and  thence  foretell  the 
direction  or  quality  of  the  streams  which  should 
issue  from  these  lofty  recesses  of  the  Eternity  that 
is  past,  and  are  to  have  their  final  consummation 
in  the  Eternity  that  is  before  us  ? 

25.  But  thirdly,  there  has  much  been  said  by 
certain  of  our  speculatists  in  Theism  on  certain 
powers  or  virtues  which  are  incommunicable — and 
which  cannot  therefore,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be 
realized  upon  any  creature.     We  have  no  great 


284   on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god, 

taste,  we  must  confess,  for  this  style  of  speculation 
at  all.  But  as  a  specimen,  let  us  mention  a  few 
of  the  things  which  are  represented  as  being 
necessarily  beyond  the  exercise  of  the  Creative 
Power.  God  cannot,  it  is  said,  realize  upon  any 
substantive  being,  aught  that  involves  in  it  either  a 
logical  or  a  mathematical  contradiction.  He  could 
not,  for  example,  make  a  thing  to  be  and  not  to 
be  at  the  same  time — or  he  could  not  make  a 
circle  whose  circumference  shall  be  precisely  three 
times  its  diameter.  And  so  along  with  this  it  is 
imagined,  that  there  might  be  certain  physical 
necessities,  which  even  the  Force  of  Omnipotence, 
restricted  as  it  is  within  the  domain  of  possibility, 
cannot  Violate.  It  seems  clear  enough  that  He 
cannot  give  certain  of  His  own  attributes  to  the 
creature,  as  His  Eternity,  His  Self-existence,  His 
Independence — and  hence  do  our  Theorists  proceed 
to  the  assertion  that  He  cannot  impart  certain 
other  of  His  perfections — not  His  Ubiquity,  not  His 
Omniscience,  not  his  Infinity  of  moral  perfection, 
and  so  not  His  impossibility  of  sinning.  We  feel 
inclined  to  proceed  no  further  with  these  desperate 
fetches  into  the  arcana  of  a  matter  that  is  inscru- 
table— these  guesses  into  the  mystery  of  things. 
But  we  woidd  put  the  question,  if  we  really  know 
as  much  of  a  creative  process,  and  of  the  laws  and 
the  limitations  by  which  it  must  be  regulated,  as 
to  warrant  the  affirmation  that  the  existence  of  evil 
is  at  variance  with  the  existence  of  a  Being  pos- 
sessing all  moral  and  all  natural  perfection — and 
whether  is  it  safer  to  incur  the  risk  of  tremen- 
dous presumption  in  meddling  with  this  high  spe- 


on  man's  limited  knowledge  of  god.  285 

dilation — or,  walking  in  the  light  we  have,  to  wait 
the  disclosures  of  that  day  which  has  been  em- 
phatically called  the  "  Day  of  the  Manifestation  of 
God?"* 

26.  In  opposition  then  to  that  unqualified 
imagination  of  the  Omnipotence  of  God,  which 
would  lead  some  to  suspect  that  there  should  be  no 
deficieacy  from  perfect  blessedness,  and  far  more 
that  there  should  be  no  positive  suffering  in  creation, 
let  us  plead  the  ignorance  of  man.  The  argumen- 
turn  ab  ignorantia,  when  rightly  applied,  is  a  pre- 
servative from  an  infinity  of  errors  in  all  the  branches 
of  human  speculation.  There  is  a  little  clause  very 
often  employed  by  Butler  in  his  reasonings — and, 
when  opportunely  brought  in,  it  is  of  inestimable 
value,  both  in  Theology  and  in  Science — "for  aught 
we  know."  For  aught  we  know,  there  may  be  expe- 
diencies, or,  if  you  will,  necessities  which  require  both 
a  complicated  system  of  means  and  a  lengthened 
procedure,  ere  the  best  and  worthiest  consummation 
of  all  things  is  arrived  at.  For  aught  we  know, 
suffering,  and  even  sin,  may  be  the  stepping-stones 
to  a  greater  and  nobler  result  than  could  have  been 
otherwise  accomplished.  It  is  on  this  ground  that 
we  would  adjourn  the  question  of  the  origin  of 
evil.  *  We  would  attempt  no  positive  solution  of  it. 
We  cannot  sympathize  with  Leibnitz  and  others 
in  the  confident  deliverance  which  they  have  made 
upon  the  subject — yet,  if  viewed  not  as  a  peremp- 


*  There  are  some  striking  views  on  the  Divine  Omnipotence 
in  a  recent  Volume  of  Essays  and  Sermons  by  the  Rev.  Henry 
Woodward  of  Ireland — a  work  replete  with  originality,  and  rich 
in  the  germs  of  high  thought. 


286  Leibnitz's  theory  of 

tory  solution  but  as  a  likely  or  even  as  a  doubtful 
Hypothesis,  it  may,  though  in  this  humbler  capacity, 
be  of  service  to  the  cause.  It  is  enough  for  this 
purpose  that  it  have  sufficient  plausibility  to  war- 
rant, not  the  certainty  that  it  is,  but  at  least  the 
conjecture  that  it  may  be  true.  If  we  can  but  say 
of  the  Optimism  of  Leibnitz  that  for  aught  we 
know  it  may  be  true,  this  would  at  least  neutralize 
the  origin  of  evil  as  a  topic  of  objection — and, 
though  it  may  not  satisfy  the  Infidel,  a  great 
practical  good  is  effected  by  it,  should  it  put  him 
to  silence. 


CHAPTER  II. 

On  the  Use  of  Hypotheses  in  Theology. 

Leibnitz's  theory  of  the  origin  of  evil. 

1.  Leibnitz  is  rightly  held  to  be  the  most  philo- 
sophical defender  of  Christianity,  in  its  more  pecu- 
liar and  evangelic  form.  We  should  not  say  that 
he  is  the  most  effective  defender  of  it — an  honour 
which  we  should  rather  ascribe  to  Jonatli&n  Ed- 
wards. There  was  however  more  of  science  and 
expansion  in  the  former;  and  something  to  us 
inexpressibly  pleasing,  in  the  union  of  his  orthodoxy 
with  the  academic  spirit  and  phraseology  of  a  man, 
who  stood  among  the  very  highest  of  his  day  in  the 
great  literary  republic,  and  even  shared  with  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  in  the  glory  of  his  immortal  disco- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  287 

veries.  He  has  a  vast  deal  more  of  eloquence  and 
sentiment  and  generalization  than  Edwards;  but 
he  is  more  of  an  adventurous  speculatist,  and 
therefore  not  so  safe  to  be  trusted,  and  more 
especially  when  he  proposes  as  a  positive  dictum 
what  at  best  is  an  Hypothesis.  But  an  Hypothesis 
might  subserve  a  great  logical  purpose  in  Theology. 
And  accordingly  the  one  framed  by  Leibnitz  respect- 
ing the  Origin  of  Evil,  even  though  admitted  to  no 
higher  rank  than  a  mere  unsupported  imagination, 
may  yet  be  of  force  to  nullify  all  the  objections 
wherewith  this  topic  is  conceived  to  be  pregnant, 
and  so  as  to  leave  in  their  undiminished  strength 
all  those  affirmative  proofs  on  which  the  system 
of  Theology  is  based. 

2.  It  may  be  right  to  state  the  leading  concep- 
tions which  enter  into  Leibnitz's  theory.  He  is  an 
optimist,  and  conceives  the  actual  universe  to  be 
such  as  it  is — because  of  all  possible  systems  it 
works  off  the  greatest  amount  of  good.  He  ima- 
gines God  to  be  not  the  author  of  evil  as  evil. 
Evil  is  not  the  terminating  object  of  his  Creation. 
That  object  was  the  production  of  the  maximum  of 
good — And  evil  has  place  in  the  existing  economy 
of  things — only  because  subservient  to  the  per- 
fectly benevolent  and  holy  end  which  God  had  in 
view,  and  of  which  end  alone  he  can  be  properly 
called  the  author. 

3.  He  supposes  all  the  possible  forms  of  a 
universe  to  have  been  present  to  the  Divine  Mind 
from  eternity.  There  must  be  an  infinity  of  such 
forms,  yet  all  of  them  must  have  been  present  to  the 
infinite  understanding  of  God.      Only  one  of  them 


288  Leibnitz's  theory  of 

has  been  realized,  or  embodied  into  an  actual  pro* 
duction  by  an  exercise  of  the  creative  power.  Of 
this  one,  God  only  is  the  author.  He  willed  the 
actual  universe  into  existence — but  He  did  not 
will  the  other  forms  of  universes  into  possibility. 
They  were  the  objects  of  his  understanding  from 
all  eternity,  just  as  number  and  figure  were — and 
He  is  no  more  the  author  of  these  than  He  is  the 
author  of  His  own  understanding.  He  is  the 
author  only  of  that  one  universe  which  He  selected 
out  of  all  the  possible  varieties — and  for  this  reason, 
that,  by  the  production  of  it  rather  than  any  other, 
he  gave  being  to  the  maximum  of  good.  It  may 
so  be,  that,  of  all  the  possible  forms,  that  which 
yields  the  greatest  amount  of  good  envelopes  in  it 
a  certain  amount  of  evil.  It  was  not  for  the  evil 
but  for  the  good  that  the  universe  was  called  out 
of  the  region  of  possibles  into  the  state  of  a  reality 
— and  God  in  selecting  it  notwithstanding  the  evil 
did  that  which  was  wisest  and  best. 

4.  The  following  extract  of  a  few  sentences 
from  his  essay  on  the  goodness  of  God,  the  liberty 
of  man,  and  the  origin  of  evil,  may  perhaps  make 
this  part  of  his  system  intelligible.  "  Evil  comes 
rather  from  the  abstract  forms  themselves,  that  is 
to  say  from  ideas  which  God  has  not  produced  by 
an  act  of  His  will,  any  more  than  numbers  and 
figures,  and  any  more,  in  short,  than  all  possible 
essences,  which  should  be  reckoned  eternal  and 
necessary — for  they  are  found  in  the  ideal  region 
of  the  possibles — that  is  to  say  in  the  Divine 
understanding.  God  then  is  not  the  author  of  the 
essences  so  long  as  they  are  but  possibilities — but 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  289 

there  is  nothing  actual  which  He  has  not  decreed 
and  given  existence  to  :  and  He  has  permitted  evil, 
because  it  is  enveloped  in  the  best  plan  which  is 
found  in  the  region  of  possibles,  and  that,  divine 
wisdom  could  not  fail  to  have  chosen." — Essay, 
Art.  338. 

5.  Now  it  were  a  hardy  thing  in  a  creature  of 
such  bounded  observation  and  faculties  as  man  to 
deny,  that,  for  aught  he  knows,  this  may  be.  We 
do  not  want  to  dogmatize  any  one  into  the  theory 
of  Leibnitz ;  and  we  think  he  advances  it  with  a 
degree  of  positive  confidence  in  its  truth,  where- 
with we  cannot  sympathize.  We  must  regard  it 
as  an  unproved,  but  still  we  hold  it  as  available  for 
a  precious  service  in  theology,  if  it  be  not  a  dis- 
proved hypothesis.  We  think  that  Leibnitz  has 
undertaken  more- than  man  is  able  for,  in  under- 
taking the  burden  of  its  proof;  but  we  also  think, 
that  the  antagonist  of  Leibnitz  would  undertake 
more  than  man  is  able  for,  were  he  to  undertake 
the  burden  of  its  disproof.  For  the  accomplish- 
ment either  of  the  one  or  of  the  other,  we  must 
have  a  power  of  discovery  remounting  to  the  first 
origin  of  things  in  the  eternity  that  is  behind,  and 
reaching  to  their  final  consummation  in  the  eternity 
before  us.  In  these  circumstances,  all  we  can  say 
of  the  optimism  of  Leibnitz  is  that  we  do  not  know. 
But  this  is  tantamount  to  saying,  that  we  do  not 
know  the  evil  in  the  universe  to  be  inconsistent  with 
the  goodness  and  absolute  perfection  of  its  author. 
Hypothesis  as  it  is,  it  establishes  no  positive  addi- 
tion to  the  truths  of  religion — yet  hypothesis  though 
it  be,  it  is  all-triumphant  in  disarming  those  objec- 

VOL.  II.  N 


290  leibnitz's  theory  of 

tions  to  religion  which  infidelity  has  fetched  from 
this  quarter  of  contemplation ;  and  whereby  it  would 
charge  the  sin  and  the  misery  which  abound  in 
Nature,  on  the  non-existence  of  Nature's  God. 

6.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  Essay  there  is  a 
very  fine  and  felicitous  illustration  of  the  system, 
strongly  characteristic  of  Leibnitz,  and  exhibiting 
all  the  force  and  comprehension  of  his  genius, 
replete  with  the  phraseology,  as  well  as  the  con- 
ceptions of  lofty  science.  It  is  given  in  the  form 
of  a  dialogue,  in  the  progress  of  which  the  inquirer 
is  at  length  referred  to  the  goddess  Minerva,  for 
the  solution  of  those  doubts  and  mysteries  by 
which  his  spirit  had  been  agitated.  The  puzzle 
was,  how  to  reconcile  with  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness of  Jupiter,  the  appearance  of  such  a  monster 
in  our  world  as  Sextus  Tarquinius  the  last  of  the 
Roman  kings.  He  is  introduced  into  a  palace 
where  he  is  presented  with  the  pictures  or  rather 
admitted  to  a  perusal  of  the  history  of  all  possible 
worlds — had  these  worlds  been  realized.  He  had 
previously  been  reasoned  into  the  conviction,  that 
Tarquin  was  justly  chargeable  with  the  guilt  of  his 
own  wickedness^ notwithstanding  the  fore-know- 
ledge of  Apollo,  and  the  absolute  pre-ordination 
of  Jupiter  and  the  Fates.  And  the  object  of  the 
remaining  argument,  is  to  reconcile  the  existence  of 
such  enormous  iniquities  with  the  actual  optimism 
of  that  world,  in  which  these  iniquities  had  been 
perpetrated.  At  this  point  of  the  dialogue,  Tar- 
quin is  conceived  not  yet  to  have  entered  on  his 
guilty  career,  but  to  have  consulted  the  oracle  as 
to  his  future  destiny;  and  to  have  been  forewarned. 


THE  ORIGIN  OP  EVIL.  291 

that,  if  he  went  back  to  Rome,  he  should  be 
preferred  to  its  sovereignty  and,  along  with  this, 
precipitated  into  the  most  odious  and  disgraceful 
crimes — whereas  if  he  renounced  Rome,  the  fates 
would  weave  for  him  other  destinies,  and  he  be- 
come wise  and  happy.  The  actual  Tarquin 
resisted  not  the  temptation  of  a  crown — but  there 
were  other  ideal  worlds,  each  having  a  Tarquin, 
with  the  same  history  up  to  the  period  of  consulting 
the  oracle  and  a  different  history  subsequent  to 
that  period.  And  the  design  is  to  show  that  the 
actual  world  is  the  best,  notwithstanding  the  dis- 
figuration which  it  suffered  from  the  atrocities  of 
the  actual  Tarquin.  "  You  have  learned  geome- 
try in  your  youth,"  said  Minerva  to  Theod®re, 
"  like  all  other  well  educated  Greeks.  You  know 
then,  that,  when  the  conditions  of  a  required  point 
are  not  enough  to  determine  it — this  gives  rise  to 
an  infinity  of  points,  all  of  which  fall  into  what  the 
geometers  term  a  locus ;  and  this  locus  at  least 
which  is  often  a  line  will  be  determinate.  It  is 
"thus  that  you  might  figure  a  regular  series  of 
worlds  all  of  them  enveloping  the  case  in  question, 
but  with  circumstances  and  effects  which  vary  in 
each  different  world.  But  if  you  suppose  a  world 
which  differs  from  the  actual  one,  only  in  one 
definite  thing  and  its  consequences,  there  is  a 
certain  determinate  world  that  will  answer  the 
supposition.  These  worlds  are  all  here,  at  least  in 
ideal  representation.  I  will  show  you  some  where 
you  shall  find  not  quite  the  same  Sextus  that  you 
have  seen,  (that  is  impossible,  for  he  always  carries 
with  him  that  which  is  to  make  him  what  he  should 


292  Leibnitz's  theory  of 

be)  but  approximate  Sextuses,who  should  have  all 
that  you  already  know  of  the  true  Sextus,  though 
not  all  which  is  already  in  him  that  you  do  not 
perceive,  nor  of  course  all  that  shall  afterwards 
happen  to  him.  You  will  find  in  one  world  a  very 
happy  and  exalted  Sextus,  in  another  a  Sextus 
contented  with  a  moderate  fortune — Sextuses 
in  short,  of  every  species,  and  in  an  infinity  of 
fashions. 

"  Upon  this  the  goddess  conducted  Theodore 
into  one  of  the  apartments.  When  there  it  was  no 
longer  an  apartment  but  a  world — '  Solemque  suum, 
sua  sidera  norat.'  By  the  order  of  Pallas  Dodona, 
the  place  of  the  oracle  was  made  to  appear  with 
the  temple  of  Jupiter,  and  Sextus  coming  forth  of 
it  professing  that  he  would  obey  the  god.  He  went 
thence  to  a  city  like  Corinth  placed  between  two 
seas.  He  there  bought  a  garden  ;  in  cultivating 
it  he  found  a  treasure,  became  rich,  was  loved  and 
respected,  and  at  length  died  at  a  great  age  the 
idol  of  the  whole  city.  Theodore  saw  his  whole 
life,  as  if  with  the  glance  of  an  eye,  and  in  the- 
atrical representation.  There  was  a  volume  of 
writings  in  this  apartment.  Theodore  could  not 
refrain  from  asking  the  contents  of  it.  It  is  the 
history,  replied  the  goddess,  of  the  world  that  we 
are  now  visiting.  It  is  the  book  of  its  destinies. 
You  have  seen  a  number  on  the  forehead  of 
Sextus.  Search  in  that  book  for  the  place  which 
is  marked  by  it.  Theodore  searched,  and  found 
the  history  of  Sextus  in  greater  fulness  than  he 
had  seen  it  in  the  panorama.  Put  your  finger  on 
whatever  line  you  please  said  Pallas;  and  you  shall 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  293 

see  represented  effectually  in  all  its  detail  what 
this  line  but  describes  in  the  gross.  He  obeyed, 
and  there  were  made  to  appear  all  the  particulars 
in  that  portion  of  the  life  of  Sextus.  They  then 
passed  into  another  apartment ;  and  there  saw 
another  world,  another  book,  another  Sextus — who, 
coming  out  of  the  apartment  and  resolved  to  obey 
Jupiter,  went  into  Thrace.  He  there  espoused 
the  daughter  of  the  king  his  only  child,  and  suc- 
ceeded him.  He  is  adored  by  his  subjects.  They 
went  into  other  chambers  and  always  saw  new 
scenes. 

"  The  apartments  were  so  ranged  as  to  form  a 
pyramid.  They  became  always  finer  towards  the 
summit,  and  represented  finer  worlds.  They  came 
at  last  to  the  highest  which  terminated  the  pyra- 
mid, and  was  the  finest  of  all — for  the  pyramid  had 
a  commencement,  but  no  end.  It  had  a  summit, 
but  not  a  base — for  it  went  downward  to  infinity. 
This  was  (as  the  goddess  explained  it)  because  in 
an  infinity  of  worlds  there  is  one  the  best  of  all — 
otherwise  God  would  not  have  been  determined  to 
create  any  of  them — and  there  is  none  below  it 
which  is  not  less  perfect.  Therefore  it  descends 
to  infinity.  Theodore  on  entering  this  highest 
apartment  was  thrown  into  ecstasy — he  required 
succour  from  the  goddess.  A  drop  of  divine  liquor 
on  his  tongue  restored  him.  He  was  transported 
with  joy.  We  are  now  in  the  true  and  actual 
world  (said  the  goddess)  and  you  are  at  the  acme 
of  happiness.  See  what  Jupiter  has  prepared  for 
you,  if  you  continue  faithful  in  his  service.  Behold 
Sextus  such  as  he  is,  and  such  as  he  actually  shall 


294 

be.  He  sallies  forth  of  the  temple  in  a  rage, 
despising  the  counsel  of  the  gods.  He  goes  to 
Rome,  there  puts  all  into  disorder,  violates  the 
wife  of  his  friend.  See  him  banished  with  his 
father,  beaten,  miserable.  Had  Jupiter  put  in  at 
this  place,  a  happy  Sextus  at  Corinth,  or  a  king  in 
Thrace,  it  would  no  longer  have  been  this  world. 
And  meanwhile,  he  could  not  but  have  chosen  this 
world  which  surpasses  in  perfection  all  the  rest, 
and  forms  the  apex  of  the  pyramid — else  Jupiter 
would  have  renounced  his  wisdom,  banished  me, 
me  who  am  his  daughter.  You  see  that  my  father 
has  not  made  Sextus  wicked — he  was  so  from  all 
eternity — and  he  was  always  so  freely.  He  has 
done  nothing  but  award  him  existence,  what  his 
wisdom  could  not  refuse  to  that  world  in  which  he 
was  comprehended.  He  has  made  him  pass  from 
the  region  of  the  possible  to  that  of  the  actual 
being.  The  crimes  of  Sextus  subserves  great 
events.  It  makes'Rome  free — there  springs  from 
it  a  great  empire  which  will  give  great  examples. 
But  that  is  nothing  to  the  total  value  of  the  world, 
of  which  you  will  admire  the  perfection,  when, 
after  a  happy  passage  from  this  mortal  state  to  a 
better,  the  gods  should  have  rendered  you  capable 
of  knowing  it." — Essay,  Art.  414—417. 

7.  Leibnitz  and.  others  seem  to  think  that  they 
have  effected  a  positive  reconciliation.  We  are 
satisfied  with  their  attempt,  though  we  think  that 
they  have  effected  no  more  than  a  hypothetical 
reconciliation  of  the  existence  of  evil  with  the 
system  of  optimism,  or  with  the  perfection  of  the 
character  of  God      According  to  his  view,  God 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  295 

is  not  properly  the  author  of  evil,  any  more  than 
He  is  the  author  either  of  his  own  understanding, 
or  of  the  necessary  and  eternal  and  immutable 
truths  which  have  residence  there  and  are  for  ever 
present  to  its  contemplation.  He  did  not  will  the 
properties  of  figure,  or  the  relations  of  quantity 
and  number — and  in  like  manner,  is  it  conceived, 
that  He  did  not  will  that  countless  infinity  of  objects 
which  have  no  other  being  than  in  the  region  of 
possibilities.  In  this  region  there  exist  in  idea 
all  possible  universes ;  and,  by  an  act  of  voluntary 
and  creative  power,  it  is  affirmed  that  God  made 
to  exist  in  reality  that  one  universe  which  is  the 
best.  There  is  evil,  it  is  further  imagined,  essen- 
tially implicated  even  in  this  best  form  of  a  universe 
. — but  should  this,  for  the  sake  of  a  fancied  improve- 
ment, be  done  away  or  converted  into  an  opposite 
good — it  would  throw  us  back  to  some  other  of  the 
possible  forms,  some  different  economy  under  which 
less  of  good  on  the  whole  would  be  produced  than 
in  the  actual  system  of  things.  This  evidently 
supposes  that,  in  addition  to  the  logical  and  the 
mathematical  and  the  moral  necessities  which  it  is 
impossible  for  God  to  annul,  there  are  also  physical 
necessities  which  it  is  alike  impossible  for  Him  to 
annul.  He  could  not  by  this  hypothesis  expunge 
the  evil  that  is  in  our  actual  universe,  but  at  the 
expense  of  a  short-coming  from  the  maximum  of 
good  that  is  rendered  by  it.  We  cannot  positively 
affirm  this  to  be  true — but  we  can  at  least  say  that, 
for  aught  we  know,  it  may  be  true.  If  we  cannot 
assert,  neither  can  we  by  any  reason  or  by  any 
knowledge  of  ours  overturn  it.     It  seems  to  be  one 


295  LrEIBNITZ's  THEORY  OV 

of  those  doctrines  which  lie  equally  beyond  the 
reach  of  confident  asseveration  or  confident  denial. 
We  cannot  refute  the  dogma  of  certain  uncon- 
trollable necessities,  in  virtue  of  which,  if  one  event 
shall  occur,  a  less  good  on  the  whole  must  ensue, 
or  a  maximum  of  good  be  rendered  impossible.  But 
if  so,  neither  can  we  refute  the  optimism  of  Leibnitz. 
8.  It  will  be  perceived  how  it  is,  that  the 
optimists  may  avail  themselves  of  this  theory,  to 
soften  all  that  is  hard  or  obnoxious  in  those 
doctrines  which  seem  to  charge  upon  God  that  He 
is  the  author  of  evil.  He  did  not  will  the  infinite 
possible  forms  of  universe  into  their  state  of  pos- 
sibility, any  more  than  He  willed  the  properties  of 
figure  or  quantity  into  their  state  of  trueness.  He 
only  willed  one  of  these  forms  into  its  state  of 
actual  existence — and  He  did  it  on  the  principle  of 
its  being  that  form  of  an  economy  for  a  universe, 
under  which  the  greatest  good  could  be  rendered 
upon  the  whole.  It  was  only  in  that  creative 
exercise  by  which  He  called  our  present  universe, 
from  the  possible  to  the  actual,  that  there  was  a 
forthgoing  of  will  on  the  part  of  God — and  He  is 
not  the  author  of  the  possible  which  exists  only  in 
idea,  but  the  author  only  of  the  actual  which  He 
has  made  to  exist  in  real  and  positive  Being.  Now 
it  is  of  prime  importance  to  remark  for  the  vindica- 
tion of  character,  that,  in  choosing  the  best  possible 
form  of  a  universe,  the  evil  enveloped  in  that  form 
was  not  the  thing  chosen.  The  thing  chosen  was 
the  maximum  of  good — the  summum  bonum  of  a 
creation,  which,  of  all  possible  creations,  was  the 
best.     This  directs  us  to  an  object  wholly  distinct, 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  297 

nay,  opposite,  to  the  evil  that  is  in  Nature,  as  the 
proper  and  terminating  object  on  which  the  will  of 
the  Almighty  laid  hold  in  the  act  of  creation.  Had 
He  created  our  universe  because  of  the  evil  that  is 
in  it,  this  would  have  fastened  one  character  on  the 
Maker  of  all  things.  But  if  He  have  created  our 
universe  because,  in  spite  of  the  evil  that  is  in  it, 
it  is  the  best  of  all  the  possible  varieties  that  were 
in  the  view  of  His  infinite  understanding,  this 
attaches  to  Him  another  and  a  contrary  character. 
He  is  to  be  estimated,  not  by  the  evil  that  belongs 
to  our  universe,  but  by  the  maximum  of  good  that 
belongs  to  it.  The  evil,  in  fact,  may  properly  be 
said  not  to  have  sprung  from  His  will  at  all.  It 
exists  actually  only  because  it  existed  possibly — 
and  it  was  translated  from  the  state  of  possible  to 
that  of  actual,  not  for  its  sake,  but  for  the  sake 
only  of  that  summum  bonum  wherewith  it  lay 
implicated  in  the  best  possible  form  of  a  universe. 
At  this  rate  the  evil,  we  should  observe,  may  be 
viewed  as  not  chargeable  on  God  at  all — but 
properly  on  the  form  which  He  translated  from 
the  possible  to  the  actual,  in  the  exercise  of  great- 
est goodness  because  for  the  production  of  the 
greatest  good.  On  the  strength  of  this  remark  we 
may  perhaps  understand  Leibnitz  when  he  makes 
Minerva  say  that  "my  father  has  not  made  Sextus 
wicked,  he  was  so  from  all  eternity.  He  has  done, 
nothing  but  award  him  existence,  which  His 
wisdom  could  not  refuse  to  that  world  in  which  he 
was  comprehended."  He  elsewhere  makes  a  dis- 
tinction  between  the  permissive  and  the  productive 
will  of  God.  The  object  of  the  productive  in  this 
N  2 


298  Leibnitz's  theory  of 

instance  is  the  maximum  of  good.  The  permissive 
has  a  reference  to  the  evil.  It  is  by  the  productive 
and  not  the  permissive  that  the  character  of  God 
is  to  be  estimated.  "  And  the  proper  object  of  the 
permissive  will  is  not'  that  which  is  permitted,  but 
the  permission  itself" — a  permission,  not  for  the 
sake  of  the  evil  but  for  the  sake  of  its  accompany- 
ing good.  "  Et  permissivae  voluntatis  objectum 
proprium  non  id  est  quod  permittitur  sed  permissio 
ipsa." — Leibnitz,  Causa  Dei  asserta,  &c,  Art.  28. 
9.  Now  all  this  is  distinctly  applicable  to  the 
vindication  of  the  common  theological  system.  The 
doctrine  of  that  entire  and  universal  sovereignty 
which  is  ascribed  to  God,  would  seem  to  make 
him  more  expressly  chargeable  with  the  evil  both 
moral  and  physical  which  abounds  in  the  universe. 
But  ere  this  can  be  sustained  as  conclusive,  our 
antagonists  must  prove  that  this  evil  is  not  essen- 
tially implicated  in  a  universe  of  the  best  possible 
form.  We  do  not  affirm  this  as  a  truth.  But  we 
state  it  as  a  probability  that,  even  in  this  humble 
and  unpretending  capacity,  is  altogether  of  force 
enough  to  silence  the  objection,  and  so  leave 
theology  to  its  own  proper  evidence.  But  there 
is  another  conception  involved  in  the  theory  of 
Leibnitz,  which  we  consider  as  still  more  fitted  to 
do  away  all  that  is  harsh  or  revolting  from  the 
aspect  of  our  theological  creed.  We  do  not  need, 
any  more  than  in  the  former  case,  to  vouch  in 
positive  terms  for  the  opinion.  Enough,  as  we 
have  already  said,  that  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of 
any  positive  refutation.  In  which  case,  it  will 
accomplish  the  only  service  that  we  require  at  its 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  299 

hand — even  that,  not  of  supplying  a  dogma  of  its 
own,  but  of  setting  a  difficulty  which  attaches  to 
another  dogma  at  rest. 

10.  This  conception  has  its  source  in  a  fancy  or 
invention  of  the  schoolmen ;  and  which  has  at  least 
a  very  striking,  if  not  altogether  satisfying  illustra- 
tion, to  recommend  it.  What  we  allude  to  is  the 
privative  character  of  evil — in  as  much  as  the  formal 
cause  of  it,  is  conceived  to  have  no  efficiency. 
Evil  is  supposed  by  them  to  consist  in  privation 
— and  hence  the  schoolmen  call  the  cause  of  evil 
"  deficiente."  Hence  the  quarter  to  which  we 
should  look  for  the  origin  of  evil  is  the  essential 
defect  of  the  creature — arising  from  the  necessary 
limitation  to  which,  as  creatures,  all  of  them  are 
subject.  In  short  it  is  in  morals  what  cold  is  in 
physics — a  thing  of  negative  quality  altogether — . 
that  is,  as  cold,  instead  of  being  a  positive  agent  of 
opposite  properties  to  heat,  is  regarded  as  the 
absence  or  the  negation  of  heat — so  sin  is  regarded 
as  but  the  negation  of  virtue  or  righteousness. 
"  Eveo-  thing,"  says  Leibnitz,  "  that  is  purely 
positive  or  absolute  is  a  perfection,  and  every  im- 
perfection proceeds  from  limitation,  that  is  to  say 
is  of  a  privative  character."  At  this  rate  God  is 
regarded  as  the  cause  of  all  the  perfections — and 
limitations  or  privations  as  resulting  from  an  original 
imperfection  in  creatures,  which  bounds  what  is 
termed  their  receptivity.  This  is  finely  illustrated 
by  the  vis  inertice  in  matter,  and  its  effects  on  a 
loaded  vessel,  which  the  river  causes  to  go  with 
more  or  less  slowness,  in  proportion  to  the  weight 
that  it  carries.     Its  velocity,  comes  from  the  river ; 


300  Leibnitz's  theory  of 

but  the  retardation,  which  bounds  this  velocity, 
comes  from  the  cargo.  And  thus  too  it  is  imaged 
of  the  creature  that  it  is  the  cause  of  sin,  though  but 
a  deficient  cause ;  and  that  its  errors  and  wkjked 
inclinations  spring  from  privation.  This  agrees 
with  the  sentiment  of  Augustine  that  God  hardens, 
not  by  giving  what  is  positively  evil  to  the  soul— 
but  because  the  effect  of  His  good  impression  is 
limited  by  the  resistance  of  the  soul,  and  by  the 
circumstances  which  contribute  to  that  resistance — 
so  that  He  does  not  give  it  all  the  good  which 
could  surmount  its  evil.  "Nee  (he  says)  ab  illo 
erogatur  aliquid  quo  homo  fit  deterior,  sed  tantum 
quo  fit  melior  non  erogatur."  But  had  God  wished 
to  do  more,  he  behoved  either  to  make  creatures 
of  another  nature,  or  to  work  miracles  for  changing 
their  nature — neither  of  which  the  actual  plan  of 
things  as  being  the  best,  admitted  of.  This  would 
just  be  requiring  that  the  current  of  a  river  should 
be  made  more  rapid  than  its  declivity  admitted  of, 
or  that  the  vessels  should  be  less  laden  that  they 
might  go  forward  with  the  greater  velocity.  The 
limitation,  or  the  original  imperfection  of  creatures 
causes  that  even  the  best  plan  of  a  universe  is  not 
exempted  from  certain  evils ;  but  which  will  sub- 
serve a  greater  good.  There  are  certain  disorders 
in  the  parts,  which  bring  out  into  striking  relief 
the  beauty  of  the  whole — even  as  certain  disso- 
nances in  music  when  put  in  rightly  render  the 
harmony  more  exquisite. 

1 1.  We  may  now  at  least  apprehend  the  theory 
of  Leibnitz.  We  do  not  say  that  we  ought  to  be 
convinced  by   it.     There  is  a  great  accordance 


TII2  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  301 

between  it,  and  the  sentiments  of  Augustine  and 
others  of  the  ancient  fathers.  It  is  impossible  not 
to  be  reminded,  too,  of  these  verses  in  St.  James — . 
"  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am 
tempted  of  God.  Every  man  is  tempted,  when 
he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own  lust  and  enticed. 
Every  good  gift,  and  every  perfect  gift  is  from 
above,  and  cometh  down  from  the  Father  of  lights 
with  whom  is  no  variableness  neither  shadow  of 
turning."  Sin  is  thus  made  to  proceed,  not  from 
any  positive  quality  imparted  by  the  Creator — but 
from  the  defect  which  necessarily  attaches  to  the 
creature,  and  which  can  only  be  supplied  by  the 
descent  of  good  influences  from  above.  At  this 
rate,  God  is  conceived  to  be  no  more  the  Author 
of  sin,  than  the  sun  in  the  firmament  is  of  the  cold 
in  ice.  This  cold,  too,  is  but  a  mere  thing  of 
privation — implying,  not  the  existence  of  any 
force  in  active  opposition  to  caloric,  not  even  the 
total  absence  of  caloric,  but  only  the  deficient 
supply  of  it.  So  far  from  this  coldness  of  the  ice 
being  due  to  the  sun,  it  is  to  the  sun  it  owes  that 
it  is  not  much  colder — for  from  him  it  has  derived 
all  the  caloric  by  which  it  is  raised  above  the  state 
of  absolute  zero ;  and  from  the  same  quarter  alone 
can  receive  those  further  supplies  by  which  its 
heart  of  stone  may  be  taken  out  of  it,  and  its 
present  intractable  nature  be  wholly  done  away. 
There  is  a  precise  analogy  here  with  the  view 
which  we  have  just  endeavoured  to  explain  of 
moral  evil  in  its  relation  to  God. 

1 2.  At  the  conclusion  of  Leibnitz's  Essay  on  the 
Goodness  of  God  and  the  Liberty  of  Man,  &c, 


302  leibnitz's  theory  of 

we  have  an  admirable  precis  of  his  system  entituled 
"  Abrege  de  la  Controverse  reduites  a  des  Argu- 
mens  en  forme."  "  Abridgment  of  the  Controversy 
formally  reduced  into  its  Arguments." 

13.  Let  us  conclude  the  exposition  of  this  theory 
with  a  short  extract  from  another  treatise  of 
Leibnitz  written  in  Latin — and  in  which  he  has 
given  to  his  system  the  advantage  of  all  that  laconic 
distinctness  and  force  that  are  characteristic  of  the 
language.  It  is  entitled  "  Causa  Dei  asserta  per 
justitiam  ejus,  cum  ceteris  ejus  perfectionibus, 
cunctisque  actionibus  conciliatam."  "The  Cause  of 
God  vindicated  by  the  reconciliation  of  His  justice 
with  His  other  perfections,  and  with  all  his  actions." 

14.  The  following  may  be  regarded  as  a  suc- 
cinct expression  of  his  Theory  on  the  origin  of  evil. 
— "  Nimirum  (ut  facili  exemplo  utamar)  cum 
flumen  naves  secum  defert,  velocitatem  illis  im- 
primit,  sed  ipsorum  inertia  limitatam,  ut  quae 
(caeteris  paribus)  oneratiores  sunt,  tardius  feruntur. 
Ita  fit  ut  celeritas  sit  a  flumine,  tarditas  ab  onere ; 
positivum  a  virtute  impellentis  privativum  ab  inertia 
impulsi. 

"  Eodem  plane  modo  Deum  dicendum  est  crea- 
turis  perfectionem  tribuere  sed  quae  receptivitate 
ipsarum  limitatur ;  ita  bona  erunt  a  Divino  vigore, 
mala  a  torpore  creaturae." — Causa  Dei  asserta. 
Stat.  71,  72. 

"  Doubtless,  (that  we  may  use  an  easy  example) 
when  a  river  carries  ships  along  with  it,  it  impresses 
a  velocity  upon  them,  but  a  velocity  that  is  limited 
by  their  own  inertia — so  that  (ceteris  paribus) 
those  which  were   laden   are   borne   down   more 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  303 

slowly.  The  thing  is  so,  that  the  velocity  cometh 
from  the  river,  the  slowness  from  the  cargo — what 
is  positive  from  the  virtue  of  the  impellent,  what  is 
privative  from  the  inertia  of  the  thing  impelled. 

"  In  the  same  manner,  plainly,  it  is  to  be  said, 
that  God  bestoweth  perfection  upon  his  creatures, 
but  a  perfection  limited  by  their  receptivity — so  that 
what  is  good  cometh  from  the  strength  of  God, 
what  is  evil  from  the  torpor  of  the  creature." 

15.  Such  being  the  constitution  of  the  creature, 
and  for  aught  we  can  say  to  the  contrary  his 
necessary  constitution,  as  also  for  aught  we  can 
say  to  the  contrary  the  constitution  the  best  adapted 
to  the  general  good — God  may  have  called  it  into 
being,  not  because  He  willed  the  imperfection  which 
arose  from  it,  but  because  He  willed  that  best 
possible  form  of  a  universe  in  which  it  was  envel- 
oped. God  chose  the  actual  universe,  not  because 
of  the  evil  that  was  in  it,  but  because  of  the  maxi- 
mum of  good  which  in  spite  of  that  evil  was  effected 
by  its  creation.  The  object  of  His  choice,  of 
what  Leibnitz  calls  His  voluntas  inclinatoria,  was 
the  good  the  greatest  good,  and  not  the  evil  the 
collateral  evil,  that  lay  essentially  implicated  with 
that  one  universe,  which,  of  all  the  possible  ones 
that  could  have  been  conceived  or  might  have  been 
created,  was  alone  capable  of  yielding  the  summum 
bonum,  or  the  maximum  of  good  which  God  could 
not  but  prefer  without  the  forfeiture  of  His  moral 
perfection.  The  voluntas  decretoria,  by  which 
He  determined  to  create  such  a  universe  as  ours, 
may  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  most  serious 
abhorrence  of  evil,  which  in  itself  he  never  could 


304  leibnitz's  theory  of 

have  desired,  but  only  permitted  in  virtue  of  its 
connexion  with  that  which  as  a  being  of  supreme 
benevolence  he  could  not  but  desire — even  the 
greatest  possible  amount  of  good.  The  voluntas 
decretorla  then  in  virtue  of  which  evil  exists,  is 
compatible  with  the  voluntas  inclinatoria — in  virtue 
of  which  God  desires  that  evil  may  be  combated, 
may  be  overcome,  may  be  destroyed ;  and  that  all 
the  energies  of  moral  nature  may  be  aroused  to  the 
uttermost  against  it.  Our  business,  whether  as 
ministers  or  men,  is  not  with  the  voluntas  decretoria, 
but  to  carry  into  effect  the  designs  of  the  voluntas 
inclinatoria — or,  in  other  words,  to  enter  on  a 
war  of  extermination  with  all  evil  whether  physical 
or  moral,  to  allay  suffering  to  the  uttermost  and 
resist  sin  to  the  uttermost.  Under  the  system  of 
Leibnitz,  which  for  aught  we  know  may  be  true, 
there  is  room  both  for  a  voluntas  decretoria  that 
has  originated  or  rather  permitted  the  evil,  and 
for  an  honest  voluntas  inclinatoria  bent  on  the 
extinction  of  it.  How  honest  in  his  opinion  this 
last  will  is,  Leibnitz  expresses  in  the  following 
sentence :  "  Quam  seria  autem  haec  voluntas  sit 
Deus  ipse  declaravit  cum  tanta  asseveratione  dixit 
— nolle  mortem  peccatoris,  velle  omnes  salvos, 
odisse  peccatum."  "  How  sincere  this  will  is,  God 
himself  hath  declared  when  He  said  with  such 
asseveration  that  He  willed  not  the  death  of  sinners, 
that  He  willed  all  men  to  be  saved,  that  He  hated 
sin  I"  Our  business  then  is  to  act  as  fellow-workers 
with  God,  in  being  the  ministers  of  his  voluntas 
inclinatoria ;  and  to  feel  that  we  enlist  in  His 
cause,  when  we  enlist  in  opposition  to  moral  evil. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  305 

For  this  purpose  we  should  bring  all  the  moral 
forces  within  our  reach  to  bear  on  the  native  apathy 
of  the  human  spirit ;  and,  knowing  that  it  is  only 
in  virtue  of  a  good  and  perfect  influence  from  above 
that  we  can  be  aroused  from  our  sluggishness,  we 
should  add  to  the  earnestness  of  our  endeavours  the 
earnestness  of  our  prayers.  There  is  a  plain  path 
set  before  us,  which  it  is  competent  for  humanity  to 
walk  in  ;  and  instruments  put  into  our  hand,  which 
it  is  competent  for  humanity  to  wield.  It  should 
neither  mystify  nor  paralyze  the  task  of  a  Christian, 
though  told  that  without  God  he  can  do  nothing — 
when  furthermore  told,  that  with  God  working  in 
him  he  is  able  to  do  all  things.  It  only  leads  him 
to  superadd  devotion  to  diligence,  to  seek  for  light 
and  strength  from  the  upper  sanctuary,  and  with 
the  light  and  strength  which  are  given  to  set  forth 
on  the  walk  of  a  bidden  obedience.  The  obscurities 
of  that  transcendental  speculation  which  now  engages 
us,  are  somewhat  like  the  clouds  that  overspread 
the  firmament  above — which,  though  they  intercept 
the  sight  of  the  sun.  still  admit  the  light  of  day  to 
circulate  at  large  among  our  lowly  dwelling  places. 
And  so,  while  the  Father  of  lights  is  Himself 
shrouded  in  mystery,  there  has  enough  of  radiance 
descended  from  His  throne  to  shed  a  visibility  over 
all  the  doings  and  all  the  duties  of  our  pilgrimage 
below — enough,  not  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  Heaven, 
but  enough  to  guide  the  footsteps  of  the  humble 
wayfarer  thitherward. 

16.  We  do  not  bid  any  adopt  this  theory;  but 
we  ask,  on  the  other  hand,  if  they  are  able  to 
overturn  it.     It  may  not  be  accompanied  by  such 


306  leibnitz's  theory  of 

evidences  and  marks  of  truth,  as  may  entitle  it  to 
be  received.  But  neither  may  it  be  accompanied 
by  such  marks  of  falsehood  as  should  condemn  it 
to  be  rejected.  There  is  many  an  hypothesis  in 
this  intermediate  situation— capable  neither  of  proof 
nor  of  disproof — and  yet  logically,  we  think,  of 
important  use  in  Theology. 

17.   We  confess  ourselves  to  have  been  charmed 
and   impressed   by  this    adventurous    speculation. 
Yet  it  is  against  our  whole  philosophy  of  evidence, 
whether  in  Theology  or  in  any  other  subject,  to 
sustain  the  beauty  of  a  speculation  as  a  substitute 
for  its  tried  and  ascertained  truth.     Our  respect 
for  the  findings   of  experience  so  overpasses  our 
relish  for  the  fancies  of  human  ingenuity — we  are 
so  impressed  by  the  sacredness  of  that  limit,  which 
divides  the   knowable  from    the  unknowable — we 
feel  so  much  how  daring  and  illegitimate  it  is  to 
pass  beyond,  into  that  forbidden  territory  which,  in 
the  absence  of  observation  or  testimony,  we  can 
only  people  at  best  with  specious  imaginations  of 
our  own — that  our  best  object  in  presenting  these 
views  of  Leibnitz  on  a  theme  so  transcendental  as 
the  origin  of  evil,  would  be  to  effect  any  positive 
conviction   in  their  favour.      It  is  for  a  different 
purpose  from  that   of   dogmatizing   any  into   his 
opinion  that  we  have  now  brought  it  forward.    We 
do  not  want  them   so  to  estimate    its  proofs    as 
to  pronounce  that  it  is    true.      It   will   be   quite 
enough  for  us  that  we  cannot  so  dispose  of  its  plau- 
sibilities as  to  pronounce  that  it  is  false.     Even  in 
this  ambiguous  condition,  it  will    be  found  to  be 
not  without   its  use — and  though  in   itself   but  a 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  307 

specious  hypothesis,  yet  be  of  substantial  service 
to  our  cause. 

18.  A  conjecture,  then,  a  mere  conjecture,  at 
once  unproved  and  unrefuted  and  alike  unsuscepti- 
ble of  both,  may  be  of  most  effective  influence  in 
the  business  of  argumentation.  It  may  be  of  no 
force  in  the  upholding  of  any  position — and  yet  be 
all-powerful  in  neutralizing  the  objection  to  it  of 
adversaries.  The  origin  of  evil  is  a  topic  that  has 
been  wielded  by  infidels  in  opposition  to  the  cause 
of  religion,  as  making  against  the  justice  or  bene- 
volence of  God.  The  defenders  of  this  cause  may 
not  be  able  to  offer  a  positive  solution  of  the 
difficulty — yet  of  the  multitude,  if  there  be  but  one 
likely  solution,  or  even  one  that  cannot  be  disproved, 
this  is  enough  to  relieve  the  cause  of  that  discredit 
which  antagonists  would  lay  upon  it.  It  may  have 
nought  but  an  assumption  to  rest  upon,  an  assump- 
tion which  we  can  allege  no  reason  nor  experience 
for — yet  enough  in  all  sound  logic  for  the  purpose 
of  defence,  if  we  can  allege  no  reason  nor  experi- 
ence against  it.  A  conjecture  is  made,  which  if 
admitted  to  be  true,  would  reconcile  the  existence 
of  a  certain  phenomenon  with  the  character  of  God. 
We  may  not  be  able  to  demonstrate  that  it  is  true. 
But  as  little  may  our  opponents  be  able  to  demon- 
strate that  it  is  false.  In  this  state,  we  cannot  say 
of  the  thing  conjectured  that  we  know  it  to  be  true 
— but  we  can  say  that  for  aught  we  know  it  may 
be  true.  This  is  not  enough  for  the  establishment 
of  a  dogma.  But  it  is  enough  for  the  displacing 
of  an  objection.  And  thus  an  hypothesis  of  far 
less  imposing   semblance   than   that  of   Leibnitz, 


308  Leibnitz's  theory  op 

though  not  sufficient  to  warrant  its  own  absolute 
deliverance  on  the  origin  of  evil,  may  suffice  to 
disarm  this  mysterious  theme  of  all  that  hostile 
application  wherewith  it  has  been  turned  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  faith. 

19.  The  truth  is,  that  an  affirmation  from  the 
mouth  of  an  enemy,  and  the  counter-affirmation 
from  the  mouth  of  a  friend  wherewith  it  has  been 
met,  may  both  of  them  relate  to  a  subject  placed 
beyond  the  limit  which  separates  our  known  from 
our  unknown.  The  one  nullifies  the  other.  Both 
may  be  expunged:  and,  as  in  mathematics,  when 
equals  are  taken  from  unequals  the  remainders 
may  be  unequal.  In  other  words,  after  the  termi- 
nation of  such  a  contest,  the  proper  evidences  of 
religion  may  remain  in  all  their  native  superiority 
and  force.  A  hostile  argument  had  been  conjured 
up  by  one  party  from  the  dim  and  shadowy  region 
of  invisibles ;  and  had  been  laid  by  one  in  its  own 
likeness,  or  by  the  defensive  argument  of  another 
party  raised  from  the  same  quarter  and  fashioned 
of  the  same  materials.  A  hypothetical  argument 
on  the  side  of  religion,  though  it  should  give  birth 
to  no  positive  conclusion,  might  at  least  match  and 
so  extinguish  the  hypothetical  argument  opposed 
to  it.  It  is  at  best  but  an  aerial  contest  on  a 
terra  incognita,  which,  after  its  settlement  leaves 
all  the  supports  of  our  faith  that  are  planted  on 
the  terra  Jirma  or  terra  cognita,  in  a  state  of  as 
unshaken  strength  and  solidity  as  before.  Such 
is  the  nature  and  such  the  effect  of  the  controversy 
on  the  origin  of  evil.  It  is  altogether  a  spectral 
warfare,  stirred  by  one  airy  element,  and  dispersed 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  309 

by  another— .-after  which  the  real  and  palpable 
evidences  of  Religion  may  be  seen  in  all  the  unin- 
jured strength  which  originally  and  properly  belongs 
to  them — the  Natural  reposing,  as  at  the  first,  on 
the  lucid  indications  of  design  which  are  in  us  and 
around  us — the  Christian,  firmly  seated  on  the 
testimony  of  our  fellow-men,  or  the  still  more  fami- 
liar depositions  of  our  own  consciousness. 

20.  Therefore  it  is  that  conjectures,  even  mere 
conjectures,  if  only  beyond  the  reach  of  positive 
refutation,  are  of  use  in  Theology.  When  their 
object  is  demonstrative,  they  may  well  be  regarded 
as  idle  speculations.  But  when  their  object  is 
defensive,  they  are  worthy  of  being  retained, 
though  for  no  other  service,  than  to  neutralize  the 
idle  speculations  of  Infidelity.  This  is  their  proper 
function — and  to  the  thorough  discharge  of  it  they 
are  altogether  adequate.  Like  meets  with  like ; 
and  the  result  of  this  contest  between  adverse  but 
homogeneous  elements,  is  that  both,  at  length,  are 
placed  hors  de  combat.  The  ultimate  fruit  of  the 
effervescence  is  to  clear  off  the  whole  matter  from 
Theology,  so  as  to  disencumber  the  science  of  it 
altogether.  What  is  sound  or  substantial  remains; 
while  the  arguments  on  both  sides  of  some  mystic 
speculation  which  at  one  time  exercised  all  spirits, 
and  took  universal  possession  of  the  schools,  pass 
into  oblivion  among  the  evanescent  shadows  and 
impracticable  subtleties  of  a  by-gone  age. 

21.  We  have  not  all  the  confidence  of  Leibnitz 
himself,  in  his  own  solution  of  the  darkest  enigma 
that  ever  exercised  the  human  faculties.  We  hold 
that  in  our  present  state  it  is  unresolvable.      But 


310  leibnitz's  theory  of 

though  we  cannot  pronounce  his  explanation  to  be 
perfect,  yet  we  esteem  it  to  be  profitable — defer- 
ring, as  we  do,  to  the  wisdom  and  soundness  which 
lie  in  his  following  remarks  :  "  We  have  explained 
enough,  when  we  have  shown  that  there  are  cases, 
where  some  disorder  in  a  part  is  necessary  to  the 
production  of  the  greatest  order  on  the  whole. 
But  M.  Bayle,  it  appears,  demands  a  little  too 
much.  He  wishes  that  we  should  show  him  in 
detail,  how  evil  is  linked  with  the  best  possible 
plan  of  a  universe.  This  would  be  a  perfect  ex- 
planation of  the  phenomenon.  But  we  undertake 
not  to  give  it — and  what  is  more,  we  are  not 
obliged  to  give  it,  a  thing  impossible  in  our  present 
state.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  make  the  observation 
that  nothing  hinders,  but  that  a  certain  particular 
evil  may  be  linked  with  that  which  viewed  in  its 
totality  is  the  best.  This  imperfect  explanation, 
and  which  leaves  something  to  be  discovered  in 
another  life,  is  sufficient  for  a  solution  of  objections, 
but  not  for  a  comprehension  of  the  thing'' 

22.  There  is  a  striking  illustration  on  this  sub- 
ject, which  seems  to  be  quite  incidentally  given  by 
Leibnitz,  as  it  is  all  contained  within  the  limits  of 
a  parenthesis,  or  at  most  of  a  sentence.  He  is  speak- 
ing of  our  disadvantage  for  observation  from  our 
seeing  but  a  part  and  not  the  whole  universe — . 
whereas  whenever  admitted  to  see  any  individual 
piece  of  mechanism,  not  in  separate  parts  but  com- 
jiletely,  we  find  a  contrivance  and  a  beauty  which 
exceed  imagination.  There  is  experimental  proof 
of  this  in  organic  bodies,  as  a  bird,  or  a  quadruped, 
or  a  vegetable.      If  restricted  to  the  view  of  one 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  311 

small  part  or  operation,  such  as  a  bone,  or  the  pile 
of  a  feather,  or  a  bit  of  membrane  or  nail  or  muscle 
or  tendon  or  root,  what  a  meaningless  thing  it 
would  look ;  and  how  utterly  devoid  of  all  apparent 
utility  or  gracefulness  !  Yet  what  use  and  signifi. 
cancy  do  we  behold  in  each  of  these  parts,  when  we 
can  comprehensively  take  in  the  whole,  and  see 
them  all  united  together  into  one  machine  or  piece 
of  complex  symmetry.  And  it  is  the  same  of  the 
universe — that  stupendous  machine — whereof  we 
only  behold  a  minute  and  microscopic  portion — 
lost  alike  in  the  immensity  of  its  grasp,  and  in  the 
infinite  diversity  of  its  objects  and  their  relations. 
And  when  to  the  littleness  of  our  observation  in 
space,  we  superadd  the  littleness  of  our  observa- 
tion in  time,  what  increased  emphasis  is  given  to 
the  lesson.  Let  us  but  ascend  from  the  revolution 
of  the  planets  round  the  sun  to  the  revolution  of 
the  planetary  systems  around  a  common  centre — 
and  it  will  appear,  that  we  live  in  the  midst  of  most 
magnificent  periods,  to  which  the  life  of  one  indi- 
vidual, and  indeed  the  whole  known  history  of  the 
species  is  but  a  humble  and  evanescent  fraction. 
We  know  not  what  the  objects  or  the  scenes  in  the 
mighty  untravelled  distances  around  us — we  know 
not  what  the  evolutions  of  the  boundless  futurity 
before  us.  We  are  beset  with  mystery  and  magni- 
tude on  every  hand — infinitesimals  in  the  midst  of 
undefined  vastness — walking  in  a  territory  that  has 
no  limits — and  describing  an  interval  of  time  that 
merges  at  each  extreme  into  the  darkness  of  Eter- 
nity. There  is  apparent  disorder  and  derangement 
ill  the  universe — but  this  is  only  to  us,  with  our 


312  leibnitz's  theory  op 

partial  or  our  ephemeral  view  of  it.  To  the  eye 
of  Him  who  contains  it  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand, 
and  sees  its  end  from  its  beginning,  there  may  be 
no  disorder.  He  views  it  in  all  its  completeness ; 
and  He  alone  is  the  competent  witness  of  ail  its 
harmony.  It  is  surely  an  important  experience 
on  this  question  that  every  completed  thing  which 
we  are  permitted  to  observe  possesses  within  itself 
a  complete  harmony.  Each  part  is  in  most  per- 
fect keeping  with  the  whole — and  nothing  can  be 
changed,  for  the  purpose  of  being  mended,  without 
injury  and  disturbance  to  a  mechanism  otherwise 
perfect  and  admirable.  Is  it  not  therefore  our 
wisdom  to  suspend  a  problem,  which  we  so  obvious- 
ly are  not  in  a  condition  to  resolve — to  wait  with 
humble  contentment  and  confidence  for  the  final 
issue  and  development  of  all  things,  for  that  day  of 
manifestation,  when  we  shall  see  God  as  He  is,  and 
know  even  as  we  are  known  ? 

23.  And,  without  waiting  for  the  consummation 
of  all  things,  we  find,  even  in  our  brief  experience, 
that  evil  is  frequently  the  parent  and  the  precursor 
of  good— that  like  as  fatigue  gives  to  repose  its 
sweetness,  so  adversity  gives  to  virtue  its  elevation 
— that  prosperity  yields  a  greater  satisfaction  be- 
cause of  the  precedent  ills  and  vicissitudes  which 
often  usher  it  into  being — above  all,  that  by  pain- 
ful conflict  with  the  physical,  the  moral  may  be 
cradled  into  maturity,  and  both  with  nations  and 
individuals  obtain  a  lustre  and  a  strength  which  no 
other  discipline  gives  rise  to.  We  have  only  to 
imagine  the  same  law  to  have  place  and  fulfilment. 
in  the  general  history  of  the  universe,  which  we 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  313 

ourselves  witness  exemplified  in  so  many  of  its  de- 
tails ;  and  then  should  we  look  on  the  sufferings  of 
the  present  state  as  but  the  throes  and  the  portents 
of  some  great  coming  enlargement  going  before, 
and  even  working  out  a  far  more  exceeding  happi- 
ness and  glory  to  those  who  are  exercised  thereby. 
We  do  not  say,  that  upon  any  observation  of  ours, 
we  can  found  such  an  hypothesis,  as  shall  give  to 
Nature  the  full  and  positive  assurance  of  a  surpass- 
ing compensation  for  evil  in  the  present  system  of 
things :  But  it  is,  at  least,  such  an  hypothesis,  as 
should  suspend,  if  it  do  not  solve,  the  objections  of 
the  infidel — and  leave  to  the  proper  evidences  of 
Religion,  whether  Natural  or  Revealed  all  that 
inherent  and  native  strength,  which  originally  be- 
longs to  them. 

24.  We  cannot  take  leave  of  this  subject  without 
adverting,  for  one  moment,  to  the  writings  of 
Leibnitz  ;  and  to  a  certain  peculiar  interest  and 
charm  which  they  possess  in  relation  to  Theology. 
There  is,  in  some  of  his  philosophic  speculations, 
an  extravagance  which  we  very  much  regret,  be- 
cause of  the  general  discredit  which  it  has  laid  on 
him,  and  which  extends  even  to  his  sounder  and 
better  views.  It  has  been  said  of  Thomson,  that  he 
looked  at  every  thing  with  the  eye  of  a  poet.  We 
would  say  of  Leibnitz  that  he  looked  at  every  thing 
with  the  eye  of  a  lofty  academic — and  in  virtue  of 
which  he  presents  us,  not  with  a  substantially  differ- 
ent orthodoxy  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Reformation 
— but  he  recommends  it  to  minds  of  a  certain  cast, 
presented  as  it  is  by  him  in  the  complexion,  and 
couched  in  the  phraseology  of  general  science.     Wo 

VOL.  II.  O 


314  ON  A  SPECIAL  TROVIDENCE  AND 

know  nothing  more  delightful  than  the  respectful 
notices,  made  by  this  distinguished  Savant,  of  the 
Augsburgh  confession,  of  Luther  and  Calvin  and 
even  our  own  Samuel  Rutherford.  There  is  a 
refreshing  contrast  here,  with  the  whole  tone  and 
spirit  of  our  more  recent  Philosophy ;  and  in  this 
age  of  little  men,  who  look  to  our  Theology  as 
altogether  an  ignoble  speculation,  we  feel  an  abun- 
dant recompense  for  their  contempt,  when  we  behold 
the  homage  that  was  rendered  to  it  by  the  colossal 
intellects  of  other  days. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Use  of  Hypothesis  in  Theology. 

ON  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND  THB 
EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER. 

1.  The  use  of  an  Hypothesis  in  Theology  is  not 
to  establish  any  proposition,  but,  which  is  a  very 
different  service,  to  vindicate  it.  The  proposition 
in  question  may  be  altogether  sustained  on  appro- 
priate evidences  of  its  own ;  and  the  hypothesis 
which  has  been  conjured  up  in  its  defence  may  add 
nothing  affirmative  to  these  evidences.  But  though 
it  makes  no  accession  either  to  their  number  or 
their  strength,  it  does  much  if  it  but  throw  a  shield 
of  protection  over  them ;  and  this  it  does  when  it 
displaces  or  neutralizes  the  hostile  argument  which 
has  been  devised  for  their  overthrow. 


TiiE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  315 

2.  This  important  function  in  the  business 
of  intellectual  warfare  can  be  discharged  by  an 
hypothesis,  though  in  itself  of  no  higher  character 
than  an  unsupported  imagination ;  and  that,  to  a 
much  greater  extent  in  theology  than  is  commonly 
imagined.  We  have  already  offered  one  specimen 
of  its  efficacy  in  repelling  an  objection  that  has  been 
made  against  the  theological  system  in  general* 
We  now  proceed  to  another  in  which  we  hold  it  to 
be  alike  effectual  for  the  vindication  of  a  specific 
doctrine  in  theology — -even  the  doctrine  or  rather 
doctrines  of  a  special  providence  and  the  efficacy 
of  prayer. 

3.  We  select  these  doctrines  all  the  more  will- 
ingly, that,  if  we  succeed  in  our  proposed  vindica- 
tion of  them,  it  will  serve  to  counteract  a  tendency 
which  is  very  prevalent,  though  incident  chiefly  to 
minds  of  a  speculative  and  philosophical  habitude, 
and  to  rectify,  in  fact,  the  whole  character  of  their 
theism.  The  tendency  of  which  we  speak  is  to 
regard  the  Deity  as  a  principle,  rather  than  as  a 
person.  They  look  to  Him  more  in  the  light  of  a 
physical  energy  than  of  a  living  agent — of  one 
whose  pervading  force  moves  and  upholds  and 
regulates  the  whole  economy  of  nature  throughout 
its  countless  diversities  of  operation;  but  not  of 
one  who  thinks,  and  wills,  and  purposes,  and  is 
affected  as  our  minds  are  by  the  impulse  of  emotions 
that  vary  with  the  objects  which  we  contemplate. 
When  we  look  upward  to  the  Supreme  and  Eternal 
spirit,  we  lose,  in  the  thought  of  a  great  and  com- 
prehensive agency,  those  features  which  serve 
either  to  individualize  the  character  or  to  liken  the 


316  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

Divinity  at  all  to  ourselves.  And  certainly,  long 
after  we  have  been  familiarized  to  the  conception 
of  the  Divinity  as  a  power,  and  even  long  after 
this  conception  has  been  fortified  within  us  by  the 
doctrines  and  the  demonstrations  of  theism — still 
we  may  be  utter  strangers  to  the  habit  of  viewing 
Him  as  a  person.  And  so  with  the  full  homage  of 
our  theoretical  recognitions  to  the  Godhead,  may 
we  be  really  and  practically  in  a  state  of  atheism. 

4.  There  is  one  obvious  effect  of  thus  ranking 
Him,  even  though  we  should  assign  to  Him  the 
supreme  rank  among  the  great  physical  powers 
and  principles  of  our  universe.  That  which  we 
hold  to  be  the  right  and  the  rational  proceeding  in 
regard  to  any  of  these  inferior  powers,  we  shall 
hold  to  be  the  right  and  the  rational  proceeding  in 
regard  to  the  Deity.  Take  the  power  of  gravita- 
tion for  an  example.  We  give  the  homage  of  our 
admiration  to  its  universality.  We  look  abroad 
with  delight,  and  at  the  same  time  with  a  certain 
sense  of  loftiness  in  our  spirit,  on  the  wide  and 
beneficent  range  of  its  influences  in  nature.  It  is 
with  ecstasy,  but  an  ecstasy  altogether  philosophic, 
that,  emanating  as  it  were  from  the  fountain-head 
of  this  simple  but  sublime  principle,  we  behold  the 
goodly  train  of  phenomena  that  result  from  it. 
We  have  given  to  it  the  name  of  a  law;  and  feel 
somewhat  of  the  deference  that  is  rendered  to  a 
mighty  jurisdiction,  when  we  observe  how  it  sends 
forth  its  mandates  to  the  very  outskirts  of  the 
universe — so  that  distant  and  innumerable  worlds 
lie  within  the  sweep  of  its  ample  operation.  But 
while  we  thus  behold  it  as  if  seated  on  a  throne  of 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  317 

ideal  majesty,  we  should  never  think  of  addressing 
it  as  a  conscious  and  a  living  agent.  We  should 
hold  it  to  be  idolatry,  did  we  offer  to  it  the  worship 
of  any  adoration,  and  a  more  abject  superstition  still, 
did  we  lift  the  voice  of  supplication  at  its  shrine — . 
did  we  ask  it,  for  example,  to  modify  any  of  its 
own  processes,  or  to  suspend  for  some  caprice  and 
convenience  of  ours  a  constancy  which  heretofore 
has  been  unexcepted  and  unalterable. 

5.  Now  let  us  conceive  this  way  of  viewing  the 
principle  of  gravitation  to  be  transferred  to  the 
principle  of  a  Deity.  We  might  readily  award  to 
this  last  a  power  of  the  same  force  and  the  same 
unity — the  same  pervading  agency,  simple  perhaps 
in  its  origin,  but  most  munificent  and  most  prolific 
in  its  beneficial  results — the  same  mathematical 
certainty  of  guidance  and  direction  over  all  the 
processes  of  nature — and  the  same  unfailing  neces- 
sity of  movement,  which  it  were  utterly  hopeless 
should  ever  at  the  forth-putting  of  human  desire 
be  changed  or  arrested  in  9s  course.  The  two 
principles  are  viewed  as  alike  in  regard  to  their 
absolute  control  over  all  the  subordinate  pheno- 
mena, and  alike  both  as  to  the  sureness  of  these 
phenomena  and  the  inflexibility  of  that  moving 
force  from  which  they  have  emanated.  We  may 
perceive  how  natural  the  transition  is  then,  by 
which  God  is  regarded  as  a  principle,  and  ceases 
to  be  regarded  as  a  person.  The  admiration  may 
be  heightened  into  a  sort  of  intellectual  adoration. 
The  delight  wherewith  one  beholds  the  utilities  of 
a  law  in  nature,  may,  when  we  reflect  on  the 
Divinity  as  its  supreme  law,  be  mingled  with  a 


318  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

sort  of  still  and  contemplative  gratitude.  But  it 
were  deemed  a  monstrous  violation  of  all  philosophy 
to  proceed  any  further — to  think,  for  example,  of 
looking  for  any  interference  in  our  own  special 
behalf  with  a  process  that  is  deemed  to  be  un- 
changeable, or  of  thwarting  by  the  expression  of 
human  desire  any  one  operation  of  that  great 
mechanism  which  is  animated  throughout  by  an 
unchangeable  Deity.  And  hence  the  wide  imagin- 
ation that  it  is  the  part  of  man  in  such  a  universe 
as  this  to  submit  to  God  but  not  to  supplicate,  to 
ponder  but  not  to  pray. 

6.  We  may  here  perceive  how  the  extreme  of 
superstition  stands  contrasted  with  the  extreme  of 
philosophical  impiety.  The  one  would  personify 
all  nature  ;  and  treat  with  its  various  elements  and 
powers  as  if  they  were  so  many  distinct  and  living 
agents ;  and  offer  incense  to  the  imagined  spirits 
that  reside  in  the  air,  and  the  ocean,  and  the 
thunder,  and  the  luminaries  of  heaven ;  and  fancy 
them  as  yielding  to  tn.e  entreaties  of  their  worship- 
pers, and  with  all  the  spontaneity  of  beings  that 
had  a  will  and  could  be  prevailed  over  by  the 
urgency  of  human  solicitation,  that  they  would 
vacillate  in  their  courses  at  the  mere  utterance  of 
a  desire  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  propitiated 
their  favour.  Now  in  this  our  enlightened  day  we 
stand  at  the  distance  of  many  centuries  from  such 
a  grovelling  imagination.  Nature  has  been  purged, 
as  it  were,  of  all  those  mythologies  by  which  it  was 
conceived  to  be  peopled  throughout  its  various 
departments.  The  torch  of  philosophy  has  put 
them  like  so  many  spectres  to  flight ;  and  the  dat- 


THfi  EFFICACY  OF  PEAYER.  319 

ciples  of  our  modern  science,  in  proportion  as  they 
pursue  their  investigations  into  the  processes  of  the 
universe,  find  more  and  more  in  them  of  unfaltering 
constancy.  In  regard  to  all  the  secondary  causes, 
the  study  of  which  is  the  business  of  philosophy, 
they  have  unlearned  the  whole  superstition  of  other 
days ;  but  here  lies  their  error,  that  in  ascending 
from  these  to  the  first  cause,  they  have  unlearned 
the  whole  religion  of  other  days.  They  may 
ascribe  to  this  paramount  and  ruling  power  both 
an  intellect  and  a  will ;  but  still  in  the  main  it  is  as 
a  physical  energy  that  they  regard  Him.  They 
look  on  the  Supreme  Principle  to  be  in  every  way 
as  inflexible  and  sure  as  they  have  uniformly  found 
of  the  subordinate  principles ;  and  that  He  is  as 
unfit  to  be  addressed  by  a  petition  or  the  expres- 
sion of  a  wish,  as  any  fancied  spirit  that  may 
reside  in  a  volcano  or  a  storm,  or  in  any  other 
department  of  Nature's  vast  machinery — that  the 
cries  of  urgency  and  distress  are  of  no  more  avail 
when  sent  up  to  Him  who  wields  the  elements  of 
the  world,  as  if  they  were  only  lifted  to  the  elements 
themselves — that  the  same  unchangeableness  which 
pervades  all  nature  is  also  the  characteristic  of 
nature's  God :  And  so  they  deem  to  be  an  aberra- 
tion from  sound  philosophy,  both  the  doctrine  of  a 
special  providence  and  the  observation  of  prayer. 

7.  Now  this  is  regarding  God  as  if  He  were  a 
principle ;  but  it  is  not  treating  or  regarding  Him 
as  if  he  were  a  person.  It  might  be  well  to  think 
a  little  of  the  respective  ways,  in  which  we  make  a 
principle  and  a  person  subservient  to  some  object 
lhat  our   hearts  are   set    upon.     We  can  turn 


320  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

gravitation  to  the  accomplishment  of  our  purposes. 
We  can  avail  ourselves  of  it  as  a  moving  force. 
We  can  put  a  piece  of  mechanism  in  its  way,  on 
which,  without  any  such  thing  as  a  request  on  our 
part,  it  will  act  as  an  impellent.  We  can  bring  a 
wheel  to  a  stream  of  flowing  water ;  and  then  we 
do  not  bid  the  impulse,  but  the  impulse  takes  place 
not  in  obedience  to  any  voice  of  ours — but  in 
obedience  to  the  uniformity  of  Nature's  secondary 
causes.  Now  we  go  differently  to  work,  when 
instead  of  employing  a  principle,  we  employ  a  per- 
son to  turn  the  wheel  for  us.  There  may  in  this 
case  be  the  authority  of  a  bidding,  or  there  may 
be  the  earnestness  of  a  request,  or  there  may  be 
the  imploring  cry  of  a  humble  petition,  that  we 
may  prevail  with  him  to  render  us  some  necessary 
service.  We  must  see  at  once  the  distinction  that 
there  is  between  the  two  styles  of  proceeding — how 
it  is  in  one  way  that  man  acts  upon  inanimate 
things,  that  he  might  bind  them  into  subserviency; 
and  in  another  that  he  acts  upon  his  fellows  in 
society — nor  should  we  be  any  more  at  a  loss  to 
understand  wherein  it  is  that  the  difference  lies 
between  the  mere  regarding  of  God  as  a  principle, 
and  the  regard  with  the  corresponding  treatment 
of  Him  as  a  person. 

8.  And  it  must  be  obvious,  that  we  can  in  no 
way  avail  ourselves  of  God  as  a  principle,  in  the 
manner  that  we  can  the  secondary  the  subordinate 
principles  which  be  around  us.  We  cannot  make 
use  of  Him,  as  we  do  of  the  energy  of  gravitation. 
We  cannot,  if  I  may  dare  thus  to  express  myself, 
we  cannot  manipulate  with  the  powers  and  the 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  FRAYER.  321 

processes  of  the  Divinity.  We  cannot  put  forth 
our  hand  as  we  do  on  the  surrounding  materialism, 
and  turn  to  mechanical  account  any  of  those  physi- 
cal energies  of  God,  which  are  all  that  they  who 
view  Him  as  a  principle  merely  are  disposed  to 
ascribe  to  him.  And  if  therefore  we  cannot  take 
the  other  way  of  gaining  Him  over  to  any  of  our 
objects  or  desires ;  if  we  cannot  bring  a  suasion  or 
a  power  of  supplication  and  entreaty  to  bear  upon 
Him,  as  we  do  upon  our  fellows  in  society ;  if, 
beyond  the  reach  as  He  is  of  any  mechanical,  He 
be  alike  beyond  the  reach  of  any  moral  application 
that  we  can  possibly  make  to  go  forth  upon  the 
Deity — then  does  there  he  a  hopeless  and  impas- 
sable barrier  between  us  and  Him  who  is  called  the 
Father  of  our  spirits ;  and,  alike  excluded  from  any 
use  that  we  can  desire  to  make  of  Him  as  a  princi- 
ple and  from  any  more  direct  service  that  we  might 
seek  to  obtain  from  Him  as  a  person,  the  Parent 
of  the  human  family  stands  at  a  cheerless  and 
impracticable  distance  from  all  His  children — 
seeing  that  if  viewed  as  a  physical  energy  still  they 
can  turn  Him  to  no  account,  or  viewed  as  a  living 
being  still  they  can  hold  with  Him  no  fellowship. 

9.  Nevertheless,  let  the  antipathies  of  Philo- 
sophy be  what  they  may,  we  hold  that  there  is  no 
repugnance  between  the  soundest  principles  of 
Philosophy  and  the  simple  credence  of  humble  and 
unlettered  piety  upon  this  question. 

10.  Prayer  and  the  answer  of  Prayer,  according 
to  the  popular  and  we  shall  even  say  the  natural 
understanding,  are  simply,  the  preferring  of  a 
request  upon  the  one  side,  and  compliance  with 

o  2 


322  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

that  request  upon  the  other.  Man  applies,  God 
complies.  Man  asks  a  favour,  God  bestows  it. 
These  are  conceived  to  be  the  two  terms  of  a  real 
interchange  that  takes  place  between  the  parties 
— the  two  terms  of  a  sequence,  in  fact,  whereof 
the  antecedent  is  a  prayer  lifted  up  from  Earth, 
and  the  consequent  is  the  fulfilment  of  that  prayer 
in  virtue  of  a  mandate  from  Heaven. 

11.  We  must  not  disguise  it — that  this  view  of 
prayer  is  the  object  of  a  strong  philosophical  anti- 
pathy— as  implying  a  perpetual  invasion  on  those 
established  and  general  laws  of  nature  which  are 
conceived  to  be  unchangeable.  It  is  painfully 
offensive  to  a  mind  habituated  to  the  investigation 
of  causes,  to  admit  of  any  fitful  or  capricious  devia- 
tion from  the  march  and  regularity  of  those  magni- 
ficent progressions  which  in  its  view  compose  the 
history  of  our  universe.  It  cannot  bear  that  the 
certainties  of  nature  and  of  science  should  be  so 
intermeddled  with — and  grievously  would  it  mar 
the  luxury  of  many  a  philosophic  contemplation,  if, 
instead  of  a  universe  whose  efficient  principles  gave 
birth  to  their  respective  trains  of  subordinate  and 
strictly  dependent  phenomena,  and  whose  pheno- 
mena could  all  be  traced  to  the  operation  of  fixed 
and  invariable  principles — the  harmonies  of  so  noble 
a  mechanism  were  to  be  thwarted  at  every  turn,  by 
the  power  which  lay  in  the  inclinations  of  man  to 
call  forth  through  that  efficacy  which  is  ascribed 
to  prayer,  the  special  interventions  of  the  Deity. 
There  is  no  conception  which  so  adheres  to  the 
mind  of  a  philosopher  as  the  unaltered,  if  not  the 
unalterable   constancy  of  Nature  ;    or,   in  other 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER,  323 

words,  the  invariableness  of  that  order  where,  by  a 
process  sure  as  necessity  itself,  the  same  antece- 
dents are  followed  up  by  the  same  consequents. 
He  cannot  give  place  in  his  creed  to  the  efficacy  of 
specific  prayer — because  he  never  has  observed,  and 
he  scarcely  can  imagine  that  the  firm  concatenation 
of  nature's  sequences  is  in  any  instance  broken. 
He  will  acquiesce  in  the  doctrine  of  a  general 
providence — if  by  this  be  meant  the  primary  in- 
stitution of  a  great  mundane  system,  left  thence- 
forward to  its  own  evolutions.  He  will  even 
acquiesce  in  the  significancy  of  prayer,  if  by  this 
be  meant  the  homage  of  our  exprest  dependence, 
or  if  uttered  for  the  sake  of  a  reflex  influence  on 
the  mind  of  the  petitioner,  and  not  for  the  sake  of 
a  direct  influence  on  the  mind  of  the  Divinity.  But 
prayer,  in  the  obvious  sense  of  it,  as  a  thing  of 
asking  on  the  one  side  and  of  receiving  upon  the 
other — prayer  as  invested  with  a  controlling  force 
over  the  processes  of  nature  and  history — prayer 
as  an  engine  by  which  to  shift  or  to  modify  the 
succession  of  events — this  were  disturbing,  it  is  felt, 
the  regularities  of  the  visible  creation — and  it  is  a 
feeling  which  gives  painful  disturbance  to  the 
enamoured  student  of  these  regularities.  It  is 
resented  as  a  sort  of  breach  or  violence  on  all  that 
wont  to  regale  his  imagination  and  intellect;  and 
thus,  amongst  the  disciples  of  modern  science, 
amongst  physical  inquirers,  and  that  whether  into 
the  physics  of  matter  or  the  physics  of  the  mind, 
it  is  in  dissonance  with  all  their  habits  of  conception 
— when  told  either  of  the  doctrine  of  a  special 
Providence  or  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer. 


324  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

12.  Though  but  at  the  outset  of  our  argument 
upon  this  subject,  we  may  as  well  at  once  make  it 
known,  that  our  own  understanding  of  prayer,  is  in 
the  plain  or  popular  acceptation  of  the  term.  We 
hold  that  there  is  in  it  a  real  interchange  between 
earth  and  heaven ;  and  that  for  the  requests  of 
faith  and  piety  which  ascend  from  the  habitations 
of  men  below,  there  do  come  down  actual  returns 
from  the  upper  sanctuary.  The  asking  upon  the 
one  side  is  met  by  a  consent,  and  so  a  giving  or  a 
performance  upon  the  other.  Not  all  the  visions 
of  philosophy  however  beauteous  could  tempt  us  to 
such  a  freedom  with  the  literalities  of  scripture,  as 
to  rationalize  and  explain  away  prayer,  so  as  to 
reduce  it  in  fact  to  a  thing  of  nought.  But  while, 
in  such  a  cause  we  should  resist  the  seductions  of 
philosophy,  it  is  also  our  duty,  as  far  as  in  us  lies, 
to  soften  and  if  possible  do  away  its  prejudices. 
This  of  itself  is  an  important  object.  And  what  at 
present  inclines  us  more  especially  to  the  prosecu- 
tion of  it  is,  that  we  expect  in  the  course  of  our 
argument  to  unfold  the  harmony  which  obtains 
between  the  spirit  of  activity  and  the  spirit  of 
devotion — to  show  that  neither  of  these  two  super- 
sedes the  other,  but  that  while  labour  without 
prayer  may  be  utterly  abortive,  prayer  does  not 
supersede  but  should  rather  stimulate  labour. 

13.  But  let  us,  as  we  are  able,  meet  the  prepos- 
sessions of  philosophy  upon  this  subject;  and  if  it 
may  be,  reconcile  its  disciples  to  that  which  in  fact 
is  the  most  natural  and  characteristic  expression 
of  piety,  and  certainly,  the  most  powerful  engine 
of  religious  cultivation. 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  325 

14.  Every  thing  has  its  philosophy,  which  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  rationale  or  the  true 
state  of  that  thing.  It  may  perhaps  be  felt  as 
rather  an  adventurous  expression  when  we  speak 
of  the  philosophy  of  prayer.  Nevertheless  it  is  a 
subject  which  like  every  other  possible  object  of 
contemplation  admits  of  academic  treatment — the 
treatment  which  is  proper  for  it  when,  on  the 
principle  of  being  all  things  to  all  men  that  we 
might  gain  some,  the  design  is  if  possible  to  soften 
the  antipathies  of  academic  men. 

15.  First  of  all,  then,  let  it  be  observed  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer  but  introduces  a 
new  sequence  to  the  notice  of  the  mind — whereas 
it  seems  to  be  quarrelled  with  by  philosophy,  on 
the  ground  that  it  disturbs  and  distempers  the 
regularity  of  all  sequences.  It  may  add  another 
law  of  nature  to  those  which  have  been  formerly 
observed — but  this  surely  may  be  done  without 
invasion  on  the  constancy  of  nature.  The  general 
truth  may  be  preserved,  that  the  same  result 
always  follows  in  the  same  circumstances,  although 
it  should  be  discovered  that  prayer  is  one  of  those 
influential  circumstances  by  which  the  result  is 
liable  to  be  modified.  The  law  of  magnetism  does 
not  repeal,  it  does  not  even  interrupt  the  law  of 
gravitation,  although  the  loadstone  should  keep  the 
iron  weight  that  is  suspended  beneath  it  from  fall- 
ing to  the  ground.  There  is  still  a  certain  and 
invariable  effect  produced,  in  this  instance,  by  the 
action  of  two  forces,  each  of  which  is  certain  and 
invariable.  There  is  nothing  in  this  to  disturb 
the    actual    mechanism  of  nature — but   only   to 


326  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

complicate  it.  Nature,  after  this  discovery,  may 
appear  a  more  complex,  but  not  a  more  capricious 
mechanism  than  before.  It  may  disclose  to  obser- 
vation a  new  train  of  sequences  which  must  inter- 
fere occasionally  with  other  trains — when  it  will 
modify,  but  in  no  way  derange,  the  workings  of  a 
sure  and  regular  economy.  What  then,  if  prayer 
and  the  fulfilment  of  prayer  are  but  the  two  terms 
of  a  sequence — having  the  effect  like  every  other 
sequence  to  complicate  the  processes  of  nature, 
but  not  to  bring  them  under  the  misrule  of  a  fitful 
and  wayward  contingency? — insomuch  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer  may  be  no  more 
in  conflict  than  the  doctrine  of  the  composition  of 
forces,  with  the  steadfastness  of  nature,  and  the 
regularities  of  a  harmonious  universe. 

16.  There  is  one  species  of  prayer,  whereof  it 
may  be  said,  that  we  have  daily  experience  of  its 
efficacy — the  request,  or  as  it  may  be  called  the 
prayer,  which  man  in  the  interchange  of  business 
and  common  life  has  so  often  occasion  to  make  to 
his  fellow-men.  In  urging  with  our  importunities 
any  brother  of  the  species,  we  are  not  making 
infringement  on  the  constancy  of  nature — we  are 
in  fact  proceeding  upon  that  constancy.  We  are 
but  presuming  that  nature  will  persevere  in  her 
wonted  order — when  we  are  trying  the  effect  of 
human  entreaty  upon  human  feelings.  We  are 
then  availing  ourselves  of  one  of  nature's  most 
frequent  sequences ;  and  founding  our  expectations 
of  the  future  on  our  recollections  and  experience 
of  the  past.  When  we  make  appliance  to  matter 
of  any  physical  or  mechanic  forces,  we  make  an 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  327 

experiment  in  Natural  Philosophy.  And  when 
we  make  appliance  to  mind  of  those  forces  which 
lie  in  persuasion  or  prayer,  we  may  be  said  to 
make  an  experiment  in  Moral  Philosophy.  The 
uniformity  of  nature  is  alike  recognised  in  both 
these  processes.  The  influence  of  one  man's  wish 
upon  another  man's  will  is  but  one  law  of  that 
moral  constitution  which  God  hath  ordained ;  and 
it  is  one  on  which  very  many  of  the  reciprocities 
of  life  are  made  to  turn.  The  fortune  of  individuals 
often  hangs  upon  it;  and,  could  we  see  into  the 
arcana  of  courts  and  of  cabinets,  we  should  find 
that  the  link  which  connects  the  askings  of  one 
man  with  the  compliances  of  another  is  that  on 
which  the  greatest  movements  and  evolutions  of 
history  are  suspended.  Yet  history  has  her  sure 
and  steady  march ;  and  an  actual  philosophy  has 
been  framed  out  of  her  materials.  The  efficacy  of 
prayer  between  man  and  man  forms  one  of  the 
component  parts  of  that  philosophy.  It  has  its 
place  among  the  other  laws  and  processes  of  the 
moral  system,  and  is  as  much  established  in  the 
world  of  mind  as  the  law  of  gravitation  is  in  the 
world  of  matter.  Man  does  no  more  violence  to 
the  immutabilities  of  nature,  by  putting  forth  with 
effect  his  urgent  appeals  to  the  pliant  and  suscep- 
tible spirit  of  a  fellow-man ;  than  he  does  by  putting 
forth  his  hand  with  effect  to  the  manifestations  of 
chemistry. 

17.  Prayer  and  compliance  with  prayer  form 
the  two  terrns  of  a  sequence  in  human  society; 
and  is  assuredly  not  more  fitted  to  introduce 
derangement  and  disorder  into  that  economy  than 


328  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

any  other  of  its  laws.      It  consists  as  much  with 
the  regularity  and  the  sureness  of  this  mechanism 
that  the  petition  of  one  man  should  move  the  con- 
sent of  another,  as  that  the  beneficence  of  the  one 
should  move  the  other  to  gratitude,   or  that  his 
injustice  should  move  to  resentment,  or  that  his 
wit  should  move  to  laughter,  or  that  his  virtue 
should  move  to  esteem,  or  that  his  genius  should 
move  to  admiration.      These  are  so  many  laws  of 
the  human  constitution;  and  that  particular  law 
by  which  it  is,  that  one  man's  desire,   preferred 
in  the  form  of  a  request,  should  move  another  man 
to  generosity  or  compassion — so  far  from  invading 
the  regularities  of  our  mental  system,  is  itself  one 
of  these  regularities.     It  forms  one  of  the  vehicles 
on  which  the  history  of  the  human  species  is  car- 
ried forward — a   moving   force  in  that   vast  and 
complicated  mechanism,  all  whose  evolutions  never- 
theless have  as  sure  a  dependence  on  the  nature  and 
principles  of  the  mechanism,  as  the  movements  of 
the  Planetary  System  have  on  the  few  simple  laws 
that  belong  to  Astronomy.      When  one  man  asks 
and  another  man  bestows,  it  is  in  virtue  of  an 
established  sequence ;  that  still  preserves  the  moral 
economy  of  Creation  in  a  certain  and  established 
order.      And  multiplied  as  these  sequences  are — 
countless  though  they  be,  both  in  diversity  and  in 
number,  throughout  all  the  walks  of  human  society 

largely  mingling  and  partaking  though  they  do 

with  other  laws  and  other  sequences — yet    alto- 
gether, we  behold  a  progression  that  is  steadfast 
and  a  combination  that  is  harmonious.      And  there 
positively  nought  in  this  one  succession  between 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  329 

prayer  as  the  antecedent,  and  a  returning  favour  as 
the  consequent,  that  more  than  any  other  of  the 
numberless  successions  which  take  place  whether 
in  the  mental  or  the  material  creation,  introduces 
anarchy  or  offers  violence  to  the  harmonies  of 
nature. 

18.  Now,  instead  of  looking  to  the  prayers  which 
reciprocate  between  man  and  man,  and  which  move 
in  perpetual  circulation  throughout  the  mass  of 
society — let  us  consider  those  prayers  which  ascend 
by  a  direct  path  to  the  throne  of  Heaven — being 
addressed  to  the  ear,  and  submitted  to  the  im- 
mediate cognizance  of  Him  who  sitteth  thereon. 
Is  it  unlikely,  that  He  who  hath  ordained  a  system 
of  things  under  which  the  influence  that  we  now 
speak  of  is  in  busy  and  constant  operation  among 
the  creatures  whom  He  hath  made ;  and  who  yet, 
instead  of  disturbing  therewith  the  constancy  of 
nature,  has  in  fact  turned  it  into  one  of  those  laws 
by  which  the  c<*nstancy  is  upholden — is  it  unlikely 
that  He  may  cause  that  very  influence  to  pass  and 
repass  between  the  Father  who  is  above,  and  the 
family  that  are  beneath  Him,  which  finds  its  way 
in  a  thousand  beneficent  sympathies  from  one  mem- 
ber of  it  to  another  ?  When  men  are  the  askers 
and  men  also  are  the  givers,  He  can,  amid  all  the 
caprices  of  human  appetite  and  fancy,  still  uphold 
the  regularities  both  of  a  moral  and  a  natural 
economy.  And  will  his  wisdom  so  fail  Him  in  that 
case,  when  Himself  called  upon  to  be  the  Giver, 
that  in  the  immutability  whether  of  His  perfections 
or  of  His  works,  there  shall  be  a  barrier  which  He 
cannot  overpass  between  the  importunities  of  His 


330  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

children  and  the  generosity  of  His  own  nature? 
Will  He  not  know  how  to  dispose  kindly  and 
mercifully,  of  those  petitions  which  ascend  to  the 
pavilion  of  His  residence,  without  introducing  mis- 
rule and  mismanagement  into  nature — or  breaking 
in  upon  the  well  arranged  and  orderly  successions 
of  that  universe  which  He  has  formed  ? 

19.  We  are  aware  of  a  difficulty  here,  related  to 
the  metaphysics  of  the  divine  nature — a  subject 
which  in  our  present  state,  and  with  our  present 
faculties,  is  wrapped  in  hopeless  obscurity ;  and 
yet  by  which  the  attempt  is  often  made  to  speculate 
away  all  those  mental  acts  and  exercises  in  refer- 
ence to  God,  which  constitute  the  very  essence  of 
Religion.  One  ground,  indeed,  on  which  antipathy 
is  felt  to  the  obvious  and  ordinary  conception  of 
prayer,  is  that  it  implies  the  imagination  of  a  certain 
state  of  mind  in  the  Deity  being  the  consequent, 
to  a  certain  state  of  mind  in  the  creature  who 
addresses  Him.  Now  on  this  ^et  inaccessible 
mystery  we  will  not  dogmatize.  We  will  not  venture 
to  speak  of  the  affections  of  the  Deity  as  related  to 
time  or  succession  at  all.  But  surely  we  may  so 
speak  of  the  palpable  acts  of  the  Deity — and  we 
may  also  regard  these  acts  as  the  expression  of  His 
mind  and  character.  We  will  not  dare  to  lift  the 
curtain  which  hangs  over  the  thoughts  and  pro- 
cesses of  the  Supreme  Intelligence — but  surely  it 
is  competent  for  us  to  observe  and  to  reason  on 
the  visible  forth-goings  of  the  Divine  power ;  and 
to  regard  them  as  indications  of  the  divine  charac- 
ter. When  he  causes  a  certain  consequent  to 
follow  in  the  train  of  a  certain  antecedent,  he 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  331 

demonstrates  how   it  is   that  he   stands   affected 
with  regard  to  the  antecedent.    If  prayer  and  the 
fulfilment  of  prayer  be  a  general  sequence  in  the 
divine    administration — this,    without   our    diving 
among  the  arcana  either  of  intelligence  or  feeling 
in  the  heart   of  the  Deity,  warrants  the  repre- 
sentation of   God,  as   a  God  who  acts  at  least 
in  the  very  way   He  would  have  done,  had  He 
at  the  moment  yielded  himself  to  the  entreaties  of 
His  children — Such  sequences,  in  fact,  and  such 
expressions  founded  upon  them  are  implied  in  the 
whole  conception  of  a  moral  government.     Is  not 
the  righteousness  of  one  man  said  to  call  forth  the 
love  of  the  Divinity  ? — and  the  iniquity  of  another 
hatred  ?  Does  not  the  misery  of  a  suffering  creature 
call  forth  His  compassion  ?     Does  not  the  stout  ■ 
and  daring  rebellion  of  an  offending  creature  call 
forth  His  wrath  and  His  purposes  of  vengeance  ? 
And  what  else  is  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  but  just  a 
certain  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of  the  creature, 
being  followed  up,  if  not  by  a  certain  respondent 
attitude  of  mind,  at  least,  by  a  certain  respondent 
act,  and  one  which  in  ourselves  would  be  expressive 
of  our  complacency  or  pity,  on  the  part  of  the 
Creator  ?  Be  a  virtuous  disciple  and  I  will  reward 
you — is  just  as  much  and  as  little  an  invasion  on 
the  simplicities  of  the  universe,  as  be  a  humble 
suppliant  and  I  will  bestow  upon  you.     And  the 
same  observation  may  be  extended  to  any  sequence 
which  it  is  possible  to  assign,  whether  in  the  moral 
or  the  natural  economy.     That  a  request  on  the 
part  of  man  should  be  followed  up  by  an  accom- 
plishment on  the  part  of  God,  implies  no  greater 


332  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

descent  or  degradation  of  the  Supreme  Being,  than 
that  any  one  antecedent  in  Creation  should  be 
followed  by  its  consequent.  It  is  wrong  to  represent 
it  as  a  kind  of  subservient  accommodation  on  the 
part  of  the  Creator  to  the  creature.  It  is  simply 
the  Creator  carrying  into  effect  His  own  established 
processes.  Present  the  Deity  with  certain  condi- 
tions— and  He  is  always  sure  to  act  in  a  certain 
manner.  But  this  is  not  because  He  is  overruled 
by  the  conditions.  It  is  because  He  rules  over 
the  conditions — and,  being  a  God  who  changeth 
not,  He  rules  over  them  in  a  certain  manner. 
When  heat  acts  upon  a  liquid,  He  follows  it  up 
with  evaporation.  When  it  acts  upon  a  solid 
substance,  He  follows  it  up  with  liquefaction. 
When  the  kindness  of  one  heart  acts  upon  another, 
He  follows  it  up  with  gratitude.  When  the 
imploring  cry  of  a  sufferer  acts  upon  the  sensibilities 
of  a  fellow  of  the  species,  He  follows  it  up  with 
the  sympathy  and  compliance  of  Him  to  whom  it 
is  addressed.  And  when  this  imploring  cry  is 
directly  lifted  to  Himself — He,  in  virtue  of  a 
sequence  as  firmly  established  and  as  essentially 
implicated  with  the  general  system  of  the  universe, 
as  any  other  of  the  trains,  and  sequences  that  enter 
into  its  vast  machinery,  follows  it  up  with  some 
wise  and  gracious  ministration. 

20.  Thus  it  is  that  the  doctrine  of  the  efficacy 
of  prayer  just  introduces  another  train  of  sequences 
into  the  universe,  of  as  uniform  a  character  as  any 
other  of  the  innumerable  trains  which  enter  into 
the  history  whether  of  the  moral  or  of  the  material 
world.      The  whole  system  of  things  remains  as 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER*  333 

much  as  before  under  the  system  of  general  laws — 
or  rather  under  the  conduct  and  guidance  of  a  God 
who  is  unchangeable.  The  gorgeous  spectacle  so 
pleasing  to  a  philosophic  eye,  of  a  creation,  which, 
through  all  its  amplitudes,  maintains  an  unfaltering 
constancy  in  the  succession  of  its  phenomena,  or 
the  unvarying  recurrence  of  the  same  consequents 
to  the  same  antecedents  is  upheld  in  all  its  entire- 
ness.  This  great  religious  tenet  may  thus  be 
rendered,  and  without  any  unworthy  compromise, 
less  offensive  to  the  taste  of  physical  inquirers. 
But  their  more  serious  objection  is  that  it  does  not 
accord  with  their  experience.  They  allege  that 
they  never  can  discover  any  trace  of  the  palpable 
and  ordinary  sequences  in  nature  being  at  all 
modified  by  a  superadded  sequence  connected  with 
the  influence  of  prayer.  Grant  that  any  newly 
observed  sequence  should  be  implicated  or  enter 
into  composition  with  those  which  had  been  already 
known,  it  must  surely  affect,  in  some  way  or  other, 
the  final  result  of  any  complex  process ;  and  make 
it  different  from  what  it  would  have  been.  Now 
the  philosopher  might  aver,  that  any  alteration  of 
nature's  sequences,  through  the  accession  of  an 
other  sequence  brought  on  by  the  intervention  of 
prayer,  never  once  met  his  observation.  He  will 
admit  that,  in  the  case  of  prayer  addressed  from 
man  to  man,  he  may  have  repeatedly  experienced  it 
— as  when  he  asked  his  companion  to  lift  some 
weight  from  the  earth,  and  the  thing  was  done  in 
counteraction  to  the  law  of  gravitation ;  or  to  fetch 
back  some  light  but  valuable  article  that  the  wind 
was  blowing  away,  and  it  was  done  in  counteraction 


334  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

to  the  law  of  impulse ;  or  to  extinguish  a  flame, 
and  it  was  done  in  counteraction  to  the  law  of 
combustion — and  all  this  without  exception  to  the 
generality  of  nature's  laws,  but  only  by  the  com- 
plication of  one  sequence  with  others  formerly  in 
operation.  But  never,  may  it  be  insisted  by  the 
close  observers  of  nature  and  her  phenomena — » 
never,  did  they  once  obtain  the  experimental  view 
of  any  familiar  sequences  in  nature  having  been 
thus  thwarted,  or  having  had  an  arrest  laid  upon 
them  by  means  of  prayer  to  the  unseen  God. 
They  have  noticed  this  done  a  thousand  times  by 
the  visible  hands  of  men — but  never  once,  they 
affirm,  by  the  invisible  hand  of  the  Almighty.  Not 
that  they  expected  to  see  His  hand — but  grant  the 
efficacy  of  prayer  to  Him — and  they  would  expect 
to  see  the  effect  of  its  interposition.  Instead  of  which 
all  their  experience  proclaims  a  course  and  a  con- 
stancy in  visible  nature  from  which,  as  far  as  their 
observations  go,  she  never  deviates — insomuch  that 
never  does  the  imploring  cry  of  all  the  families 
arrest,  by  the  reversal  of  one  law,  that  loosened 
avalanche  which  buries  the  hamlet  in  its  fall — and 
never  is  it  found  that  the  prayer  of  unhappy 
inmates  will  arrest  the  conflagration  of  a  house  by 
the  reversal  of  another  law,  or  stripping  the  fire  of 
its  wonted  property  and  power- — and  never  that 
mariners  are  saved  by  the  intermission  of  another 
law  either  in  the  impulse  of  the  wind  upon  the 
waves,  or  in  the  impulse  of  the  waves  upon  a  vessel 
too  frail  for  the  onset  of  the  mighty  tempest  which 
has  assailed  it.  In  all  these,  and  in  every  other 
instance,  it  is  affirmed,  there   is  no  appearance 


TEE  EFFICACY  OF  FftAYER.  335 

whatever  of  any  intromission  with  the  processes  of 
nature,  as  far  at  least  as  these  processes  are  visible* 
She  seems  to  move  in  her  wonted  order  without 
deviation.  By  the  most  careful  and  searching 
experiments,  there  cannot  be  detected  the  vestige 
of  any  unseen  power  that  has  been  at  work  with 
the  sure  and  regular  march  of  her  sequences.  In 
a  word  all  the  successions  both  in  mind  and  matter 
to  the  extent  in  which  they  have  been  perceived 
and  classified  are  to  all  sense  invariable,  so  as  that 
the  same  consequents  palpably  come  forth  of  the 
same  antecedents.  And  how,  in  the  face  of  all 
this  observation,  shall  we  expect  to  shift  the  order 
of  events  by  our  supplication,  or  how  can  we  have 
confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  ? 

21.  After  all  the  generalities  which  have  been 
hitherto  advanced  by  us,  this  remains  a  palpable 
and  obstinate  phenomenon  which  would  need  if 
possible  to  be  disposed  of.  Prayer  with  its  fulfil- 
ment must  be  admitted  as  one  of  those  innumerable 
sequences  which  obtain  in  nature— had  we  but  the 
evidence  for  its  reality.  But  if  indeed  an  actual 
sequence,  we  should  be  able,  it  is  thought,  to  dis- 
cover the  traces  of  it  when  it  came  to  be  compli- 
cated with  and  so  to  modify  or  disturb  the  order 
of  other  sequences.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that 
prayer  and  its  fulfilment  might  be  one  of  the  many 
laws  in  nature,  and  yet  nature  on  the  ivhole  main- 
tain her  constancy.  But  the  stubborn  fact,  and  a 
fact  which  stands  in  the  way  of  this  alleged 
efficacy  of  prayer,  is,  that,  notwithstanding  the 
intervention  of  this  supposed  and  additional  law, 
visible  nature  maintains  her  constancy,  and  as  far 


336  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

as  appears,  in  the  very  way  she  would  have  done 
though  there  had  been  no  such  law.  We  see  no 
evidence,  it  is  affirmed,  of  the  constancy  of  visible 
nature  giving  way  to  that  invisible  agency,  the 
interposition  of  which  it  is  the  express  purpose  of 
prayer  to  obtain.  The  effect  of  such  agency,  did 
it  ever  come  into  operation,  would  be  to  overrule 
the  other  established  processes  that  have  place  in 
the  economy  of  the  world;  and  the  strength  of  the 
objection  lies  in  this,  that  we  never  witness  any  such 
overruling  of  these  processes. 

22.  In  reply  to  this  let  us  endeavour  to  ascertain 
if  by  any  possible  or  hypothetical  method,  the  an- 
swer to  prayer  may  be  effectively  given  without  any 
infringement  on  the  known  regularities  of  nature. 
These  regularities  consist  in  the  invariableness 
of  certain  successions — each  term  of  which  is  the 
consequent  of  the  one  that  went  before  it,  and  the 
antecedent  of  the  one  that  comes  after  it.  Grant 
that  the  contiguous  links  of  any  one  chain,  as  far 
upward  as  we  are  able  to  trace  them,  follow  each 
other  in  precisely  the  same  order — it  should  be 
recollected  of  the  chief  terrestrial  processes  which 
are  going  on  around  us,  that  the  chain  does  not 
terminate  at  the  point  where  our  observation 
terminates — that,  somewhere  along  the  ascent  of 
our  investigation,  the  mechanism  ceases  to  be  pal- 
pable and  begins  to  be  obscure,  till  at  length  it  is 
shrouded,  as  if  by  an  impenetrable  veil,  from  our 
notice  altogether — and  that  although  we  can  trace 
the  steps  of  a  causal  progression  a  certain  way 
back,  it  loses  itself  at  the  last  among  the  recondite 
places  of  the  mechanism.     Now  it  signifies  not 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  337 

to  the  final  result,  whether  the  answer  to  praypr  he 
given  oy  a  responsive  touch  from  the  finger  ot  the 
Almighty  at  a  higher  or  a  lower  place  in  the  pio- 
gression ;  as  a  change  upon  any  of  the  terms, 
wherever  it  may  be  situated,  will  have  a  controlling 
efficacy  on  all  the  succeeding  ones.  Let  the  change 
then  be  effected  far  enough  back,  and  there  will  be 
the  alteration  of  a  sequence  no  doubt,  but  without 
violence  to  any  ascertained  law — because  a  sequence 
beyond  the  reach  of  all  our  philosophy.  Prayer 
may  obtain  its  fulfilment  without  any  visible  reversal 
of  the  constancies  of  nature — provided  that  its  first 
effect  is  upon  some  latent  and  interior  spring  of  the 
mechanism,  and  not  among  its  palpable  evolutions. 
Let  but  the  touch  of  communication  between  the 
Deity  and  His  works,  when  He  goes  forth  to  meet 
the  desire  of  any  of  His  creatures,  be  behind  or 
underneath  that  surface  which  marks  and  measures 
off  the  farthest  verge  of  man's  possible  discovery — 
and  then,  may  there  be  many  a  special  request 
which  receives  as  special  an  accomplishment,  yet 
without  disturbance  to  those  wonted  successions 
which  either  the  eye  of  man  or  his  nicest  instruments 
of  observation  shall  enable  him  to  ascertain.  But 
it  is  not  easy  to  make  this  matter  perspicuous  in 
the  msre  use  of  general  terms — and  we  must  there- 
fore attempt  the  illustration  of  it  by  examples. 

23.  Let  us,  for  our  first  example,  make  the 
supposition  of  prayer  for  a  prosperous  voyage.  It 
does  not  appear  why  an  answer  to  this  prayer 
might  not  be  given ;  and  yet  all  the  established 
sequences  in  our  world  be  maintained  in  their 
wonted  order,  as  far  back  as  philosophy  can  dis- 

VOL.  II.  P 


338  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

cover  them.  Instead  of  God  dispensing  with  the 
secondary  causes,  when  He  meets  and  satisfies  our 
prayers,  they  may  be  the  very  instruments  by  which 
He  fulfils  them.  When  He  hearkens  to  our  sup- 
plications for  a  prosperous  voyage,  this  may  be 
answered  in  two  ways — either  without  the  favour- 
able wind  or  by  means  of  it.  If  in  the  latter  way, 
there  has  yet,  in  as  far  as  the  proximate  sequence 
is  concerned,  been  no  miracle.  He  has  not  sent 
forth  a  miraculous  impulse  upon  the  vessel,  but  has 
caused  the  very  wind  to  arise,  which  by  the  laws 
of  motion  should  have  bore  her  onward  to  the 
destined  haven.  But  again,  in  the  next  higher 
sequence  there  might  still  have  been  the  observation 
of  the  regularities  of  nature.  The  wind  might 
have  been  caused  without  the  condensation  of 
vapour,  or  by  its  condensation.  If  in  the  latter 
way,  still  there  is  no  miracle.  The  wind  has  not 
been  originated  in  contravention  to  any  known 
law,  but  has  sprung  up  from  that  previous  condition 
of  the  air  and  the  vapour,  which,  by  the  doctrine 
of  pneumatics,  should  cause  the  very  gale  to  blow 
that  accomplishes  the  service.  The  same  might 
be  repeated  on  the  next  sequence  of  this  ascending 
progression.  The  vapour  could  have  been  raised 
without  the  action  of  heat,  or  by  that  action.  If 
without  it,  the  prayer  has  been  answered  miracu- 
lously— if  by  it,  there  can  yet  be  detected  no  change 
in  the  processes  of  nature;  and  the  prosperous 
voyage  is  the  result  of  that  previous  condition  of 
the  air  and  the  vapour  and  the  heat,  which,  by  the 
combined  laws  of  impulse  and  pneumatics  and 
chemistry,  ought  to  have  caused  it.      Carry  these 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  339 

retrogressive  explanations  as  far  as  they  can ;  and 
sc  far,  that  is  to  the  uttermost  limits  of  science,  to 
the  full  extent  of  her  possible  observations,  all 
might  appear  to  move,  or  rather,  mi^t  actually 
move,  in  strictly  undeviating  order.  But  still, 
ulterior  to  this,  and  between  the  remotest  confines 
of  all  which  nature  can  see  upon  the  one  hand,  and 
that  throne  whence  the  Author  of  Nature  issues 
forth  His  mandates,  upon  the  other — there  is  a 
hidden  intermediate  process  which  connects  the 
purposes  of  the  divine  mind,  with  the  visible  phe- 
nomena of  that  universe  which  He  has  created  : 
and,  not  among  the  palpable  things  which  lie 
exposed  to  view  in  the  region  of  observation,  but 
among  the  secret  things  which  lie  in  the  deep  and 
the  dark  abyss  that  is  between  the  furthest  reach  of 
man's  discovery  and  the  forthgoings  of  God's  will 
— it  is  among  these,  where  that  responsive  touch 
may  be  given  by  the  finger  of  the  Almighty,  which 
shall  guide  the  mechanism  of  the  world ;  and  with- 
out thwarting  any  of  its  ascertained  laws.  The 
limit  of  our  investigation  is  not  the  commencement 
of  the  series.  It  has  anterior  steps  yet  undis- 
covered, and  perhaps  undiscoverable  by  us,  among 
the  depths  of  meteorology.  It  may  be  there,  and 
not  among  the  patent  regularities  of  nature,  where 
the  answer  to  prayer  is  germinated — so  as  to  ensure 
a  prosperous  voyage,  yet  without  one  change  which 
philosophy  with  all  her  instruments  can  detect  in 
the  established  successions  of  the  universe.  For 
this,  He  moves  the  springs  which  lie  behind  the 
curtain  of  sense  and  observation.  But  before  that 
curtain,  or  in  the  eyes  of  us,  the  spectator*:  of 


340  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

nature's  phenomena — the  air  and  the  vapour  and 
the  heat  which  are  the  ministers  of  God,  fulfilling 
His  wordynight  perform,  in  the  exercise  of  theii 
own  proper  and  characteristic  virtues,  their  respec- 
tive evolutions,  without  any  change  whatever  in  the 
effects  which  they  produce  or  in  the  properties 
which  belong  to  them. 

24.  But  for  a  second  example — the  prayer  for  a 
prosperous  harvest  may  be  effectually  answered, 
and  yet  not  be  answered  by  miracle.  The  ripened 
harvest  does  not  immediately  start  into  being,  at 
the  utterance  of  a  word — neither  is  it  made  to  rise 
to  maturity  in  the  midst  of  adverse  weather  and 
unfavourable  seasons,  or  in  the  absence  of  all  the 
genial  and  kindly  influences,  by  which  it  is  usually 
fostered.  The  prayer  may  be  answered  yet  not  by 
the  vegetation  being  made  to  flourish  in  the  midst 
of  storms,  where  it  never  flourished  before — but  by 
the  vegetation  being  made  to  flourish  as  it  wont, 
under  the  smile  of  sunshine  and  in  the  midst  of 
peaceful  elements.  The  plenteous  harvest  is  given, 
not  without  the  usual  antecedent  of  favourable 
weather — but  with  or  rather  by  this  antecedent. 
The  responsive  touch  is  applied  as  before  to  some 
anterior  steps  among  the  arcana  of  Meteorology, 
whence  the  Almighty,  at  His  bidding,  can  sum- 
mon the  requested  weather,  and  conduct  all  the 
subsequent  trains  to  their  final  issue  in  the  bless- 
ings of  abundance — without  the  reversal  of  any 
sequences  that  in  the  platform  of  visible  things  are 
open  to  human  eyes.  He  can  by  antedating  his 
reply,  as  it  were,  at  a  point  sufficiently  high  in  the 
train  of  causation,  summon  into  being,  not  the  first 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  341 

antecedents,  but  the  first  antecedents  which  are 
perceivable  by  us — after  which,  the  whole  succession 
may  proceed  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
nature  and  the  lessons  of  experience.  By  an 
interposiug  touch,  at  hidden  depths  in  the  labora- 
tory of  nature,  a  favourable  concurrence  of  the 
elements  might  be  made  to  bear  on  the  agriculture 
from  without — or,  by  the  same  interposition  among 
the  inaccessible  laws  of  the  vegetable  physiology, 
a  healthier  or  more  prolific  crop  might  be  made 
to  arise.  Yet  in  neither  department,  need  there 
be  any  shift  in  the  known  successions  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  nature  ;  and  while  nought  but  the  most 
steadfast  uniformity  can  be  observed  on  the  pano- 
rama of  our  contemplation ;  yet,  by  an  operation 
underneath,  may  the  all-working  God,  without 
violence  to  the  regularities  of  nature,  ensure  effec- 
tive fulfilment  to  the  prayers  of  his  dependent 
family. 

25.  We  hope  that  more  illustration  is  super 
fluous — yet  we  cannot  refrain  from  adverting  to  the 
instance  of  prayer  for  the  continuance  or  the  reco- 
very of  health.  We  appeal  to  those  who  are  most 
conversant  with  the  diagnostics  or  the  prognostics 
of  disease — for  how  short  a  way  back,  among  the 
processes  of  the  animal  physiology,  the  investiga- 
tions of  their  science  can  carry  them.  To  answer 
such  a  prayer  then,  God  does  not  need  to  intromit 
with  the  constancies  of  visible  nature — for  the 
primary  fountain-head  of  that  influence,  which  either 
medicates  or  distempers  the  human  frame,  is  placed 
in  a  region  of  profoundest  mystery.  Here,  if  any 
where,  He  may  work  in  secret,  and  direct  the  pro- 


342  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

cesses  of  the  machine,  without  disturbance  to  any 
of  its  known  and  wonted  sequences.  The  hand  of 
God  may  have  been  stretched  forth  to  heal  or  to 
destroy — yet  the  eye  of  man,  to  the  uttermost 
stretch  of  his  observation,  may  have  seen  nothing 
but  nature  walking  in  her  established  courses,  and 
never  once  appearing  to  falter  from  the  regularity 
of  her  march.  As  far  as  the  cognizance  of,  the 
physician  extends,  it  may  be  altogether  a  system 
of  general  laws,  or  of  successions  which  are  inva- 
riable— from  the  remotest  antecedent  which  he  has 
been  able  to  trace,  down  to  that  ultimate  or  actual 
consequent  which  is  immediately  before  his  view. 
But  beyond  that  antecedent  there  are  recesses 
which  he  never  has  explored — and  there,  may  the 
unseen  and  presiding  agency  of  God  be  originating 
all  those  processes,  of  which  the  philosopher  sees 
nothing  but  the  uniformity  of  the  closing  footsteps. 
It  is  thence  He  may  answer  prayer ;  and,  however 
proud  science  shall  despise  the  affirmation,  there 
is  nought  in  all  the  laws  and  sequences  that  she 
has  ever  ascertained,  by  which  she  can  disprove  it. 
26.  But  the  most  interesting  application  of  this 
whole  argument,  is  to  the  laws  and  sequences  of 
the  mental  world.  There  is  not  perhaps  a  prayer 
which  ascends  more  frequently  to  Heaven,  than 
that  which  has  for  its  object  a  right  and  desirable 
state  of  mind — whether  the  state  prayed  for  be  an 
intellectual  or  a  moral  or  a  religious  one.  Beside 
being  the  natural  effusion  of  a  mind  in  earnest  for 
the  good  of  its  Eternity,  there  are  many  scriptural 
examples  of  such  prayer — as  of  this  for  a  right 
intellectual  state,  "  Open  thou  mine  eyes  that  I 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  343 

may  behold  the  wondrous  things  contained  in  thy 
law." — Or  of  this  for  a  right  moral  state,  "  Uphold 
my  goings  in  thy  paths  that  my  footsteps  slip  not." 
— Or  of  this  for  a  right  spiritual  state,  "  Create  a 
clean  heart  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 
Meanwhile  mind  as  well  as  matter  has  its  laws, 
its  regular  succession  of  antecedents  and  conse- 
quents, its  trains  of  phenomena  dependent  the  one 
upon  the  other  by  the  relation  of  invariableness. 
There  is  room  and  subject  for  a  philosophy  in  this 
department  as  well  as  in  others — but  without  a 
resemblance  in  the  objects  and  a  constancy  in  the 
order  of  events  there  could  be  no  philosophy.  And 
accordingly  on  this  field  of  investigation,  too,  we 
have  our  principles  and  laws — the  laws  of  sugges- 
tion— the  laws  of  emotion — the  reciprocal  influences 
which,  by  means  of  the  faculty  of  attention,  obtain 
between  the  understanding  and  the  will — and  many 
other  processes  whether  of  feeling  or  of  thought, 
which,  in  virtue  of  their  uniformity  alone  admit  of 
classification,  or  in  other  words,  admit  of  being 
philosophized.  Now,  what  we  affirm  of  this  ex- 
ample, and  perhaps  with  greater  confidence  than 
in  any  of  the  former  ones,  is  the  perfect  consistency 
which  obtains  between  the  rigid  uniformity  of  these 
various  successions  and  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  A 
few  steps  anterior  to  the  final  result  we  can  trace, 
and  may  find  that  they  follow  each  other  in  their 
accustomed  order  without  anomaly  and  without 
variation.  But  one  step  higher;  and  we  come  to  the 
antecedent  within  the  veil — which  invisible  itself, 
may  be  overruled  by  an  immediate  hand,  and  yet 
overrule  the  whole  of  that  visible  succession  which 


344  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

emerges  from  it  without  one  law  of  the  mental  phil- 
osophy being  violated.  The  response  is  given  at 
a  place  beyond  the  cognizance  of  philosophy — at  a 
place  whence  may  issue  forth  to  their  accomplish- 
ment the  mandates  of  divine  power,  yet  without 
infringement  on  the  certainties  of  human  experi- 
ence. If  a  miracle  imply  the  violation  of  a  known 
sequence  in  nature,  then,  what  have  been  called 
the  miracles  of  grace,  may  in  effect  be  achieved, 
and  yet  not  have  been  achieved  miraculously. 

27.  We  may  observe  that  if  prayer  be  of  any 
effect  at  all  in  the  obvious  and  natural  meaning  of 
it — that  is,  if  a  special  and  definite  request  ever 
obtain  a  special  and  definite  fulfilment,  there  is  a 
high  expediency  concerned  in  the  fulfilment  being 
so  made  good,  as  that  the  regularities  of  nature 
shall  not  be  infringed  upon.  We,  in  this  way, 
secure  the  greatest  practical  advantage  that  lies  in 
a  system  of  general  laws.  Without  such  a  system, 
we  should  have  no  benefit  from  the  lessons  of 
experience.  It  is  just  because  of  the  constancy 
which  obtains  among  nature's  sequences,  that  when 
certain  antecedents  are  presented  to  observation, 
we  anticipate  with  confidence  that  certain  conse- 
quents and  no  others  shall  follow.  It  is  thus  and 
thus  alone,  in  fact,  that  our  recollections  of  the  past 
become  available  for  the  guidance  of  the  future ;  or 
that  science  and  wisdom  come  to  be  founded  on  the 
informations  of  experience.  But  for  this  purpose, 
it  is  enough  that  there  shall  be  no  intromission  with 
nature's  visible  sequences — or  that  the  constancy 
of  these  shall  be  kept  inviolate,  not  only  as  far  as 
the  eye  of  unwary  and  superficial  observation  can 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  345 

extend,  but  also  as  far  as  the  searching  eye  of 
philosophy  can  penetrate.  It  is  not  indispensable 
then  to  the  stability  of  our  experience,  that  all 
interpositions  shall  be  banished  from  the  economy 
of  creation.  It  is  only  required  that  these  inter- 
positions shall  be  made  among  the  inscrutable 
recesses  which  are  behind  the  curtain,  and  not 
among  the  palpable  events  or  evolutions  which  are 
before  it.  We  in  this  way  make  good  a  harmony 
between  the  voice  of  experience  when  it  proclaims 
the  regularity  of  visible  nature,  and  the  voice  of 
revelation  when  it  proclaims  the  efficacy  of  prayer. 
We  reconcile  dependence  on  the  constancy  of 
nature,  with  dependence  on  the  kindness  and  the 
help  of  nature's  God.  It  is  a  precious  blessing  that, 
in  the  antecedents  that  are  actually  before  our  eyes, 
we  can  read  the  indications  of  futurity.  But  it  is 
a  blessing  still  more  precious  that,  by  means  of 
other  antecedents,  the  Deity  can  direct  or  modify 
or  overrule  the  former  ones,  and  that  He  is  a  Deity 
accessible  to  our  prayers.  And  so  philosophy 
may  be  made  to  meet  and  be  at  one  with  piety. 
Each  of  these  schools  has  its  distinct  but  not  its  dis- 
cordant lessons.  The  same  man  may  be  a  learner  at 
both  ;  and  the  fruit  of  his  proficiency  may  be,  that 
he  blends  the  anticipations  of  experience  with  the 
hopes  and  the  exercises  of  religion.  He  lives  as  if 
under  the  canopy  of  a  special  providence,  even  on 
that  platform  of  sensible  things  where  all  the  trains 
and  successions  are  invariable.  He  feels,  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  that  he  is  under  the  care  of  a 
presiding  God  and  among  the  regularities  of  a  har- 
monious Universe. 

p2 


346  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

28.  But  while  we  thus  argue  that  by  an  operation 
behind  the  scenes,  Prayer  may  be  responded  to 
without  infringement  on  the  visible  sequences  of 
nature,  we  will  not  affirm  what  the  specific  operation 
actually  is.  We  may  clearly  see  that  there  are 
several  ways  by  which  this  can  be  brought  about; 
and  yet  we  may  not  be  able  to  pronounce  upno 
the  one  way.  One  might  conceive  it  to  be  done 
by  the  ministry  of  angels.  Another  may  imagine 
that  the  effect  of  prayer  on  some  hidden  term  of 
that  progression  which  has  led  to  the  wished  for 
result  may  itself  be,  as  much  as  any  other,  one  of 
the  regular  sequences  of  nature  ;  and,  certainly, 
prior  to  experience,  is  not  more  mysterious  or 
unlikely  than  the  effect  which  a  particle  of  matter 
has  on  the  most  distant  matter  of  our  Universe. 
Another  may  contend  for  the  direct  intervention  of 
a  fiat  from  the  court  of  Heaven's  Sovereignty — 
whose  first  influence  is  on  some  occult  antecedent 
in  the  upper  places  of  the  train,  and  whose  subse- 
quent influences  descend  in  regular  order,  perhaps 
through  many  visible  steps  to  the  final  accomplish- 
ment. And  lastly,  the  taste  of  some  may  incline 
them  to  a  pre-established  harmony,  as  if  the  same 
God  who  foresaw  every  prayer,  included  every 
answer  to  these  prayers  in  His  primary  adjustment 
of  the  great  Mundane  System.*     We  do  not  affirm 


*  The  author  of  the  Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm,  in  his 
chapter  on  the  enthusiastic  abuses  of  the  doctrine  of  a  particular 
providence,  advances  an  hypothesis  distinct  from  all  these,  and 
which  certainly  has  peculiar  recommendations  of  its  own.  His 
conception  is  that  the  history  of  nature  and  of  society  is  made  up 
of  innumerable  progressions,  in  lines  which  perpetually  cross  each 
other ;  and  which  at  their  point  of  intersection  receive  a  now 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  347 

our  preference  for  any  of  these  suppositions ;  and 
we  are  not  called  upon  to  do  so.  We  are  engaged 
with  one  objection  to  the  efficacy  of  prayer  grounded 
on  the  constancy  of  nature's  successions,  as  far  as 
they  are  visible.  We  hold  this  to  be  effectually 
met  by  the  consideration  of  there  being  one  or  two 
or  any  indefinite  number  of  methods,  whereby  a 
reconciliation  may  be  made  between  this  doctrine 
of  faith  and  the  phenomena  of  experience.  This, 
in  all  good  logic,  is  enough  for  the  question  between 
us  and  our  adversaries.  A  thousand  possibilities 
do  not  warrant  a  specific  or  positive  assertion  on 
our  side.  But  one  possibility  is  of  equivalent  power 
to  displace  and  nullify  the  objection  on  their  side. 
We  could  not,  without  the  transgression  of  sound 
philosophy,  select  the  one  which  is  certain  out  of 


direction,  in  virtue  of  the  lateral  impulse  that  has  come  upon 
them.  When  an  individual  receives  an  answer  to  his  prayer,  the 
interposition  might  be  made  not  in  the  line  which  he  himself  is 
describing-,  but  in  one  of  those  which  are  to  meet  him  on  his 
path  ;  and  at  a  point  therefore,  where  even  though  the  visible 
constancy  of  nature  should  have  been  violated,  yet,  as  being  at 
the  time  beyond  the  sphere  of  his  observation,  it  is  a  violation 
not  visible  to  him.  In  one  respect  this  hypothesis  has  an  advan- 
tage over  the  one  which  we  have  ventured  to  propose.  In  ours 
the  interposition,  as  being  made  at  an  anterior  place  in  the  scale 
of  causation,  might  require  at  times  to  be  made,  not  in  answer  to 
the  prayer,  but  in  the  anticipation  of  it.  By  the  other,  the  interposi- 
tion, if  made  at  however  little  a  way  from  the  point  of  junction, 
might  be  made  both  after  the  prayer  and  beyond  the  direct  cog- 
nizance of  the  supplicant.  This  tallies  better  with  our  actual 
experience  of  those  fulfilments,  by  which  relief  is  often  made  to 
come  to  us  from  an  unexpected  quarter ;  and  also  with  such 
declarations  of  Holy  Writ  as  "  God  being  a  very  present  help  in 
time  of  trouble."  By  either  hypothesis  the  answer  might  be 
effectually  made,  but  without  any  infringement  on  the  constancy 
of  nature  noticeable  by  us  ;  and  so  therefore  as  to  leave  inviolate, 
all  the  benefits  of  experience  and  the  obligations  of  man  to  conform 
himself  to  its  lertons. 


348  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

the  many  which  are  conceivable.  But  it  were  a 
transgression  greatly  more  violent,  to  affirm  of  the 
eternal  and  inscrutable  Spirit  who  operates  unseen 
through  the  mazes  of  His  own  workmanship,  that 
He  could  not,  in  the  infinity  of  His  resources, 
devise  a  method  by  which  both  to  uphold  the  visible 
uniformities  of  nature,  and  yet  to  meet  and  satisfy 
our  Prayers. 

29.  We  regret  the  length  of  this  argument ;  but 
for  the  argument  itself  we  make  no  apology.  An 
ardent  disciple  warm  from  the  schools  of  philoso- 
phy, and  habituated  to  the  investigation  of  nature's 
laws,  acquires  both  a  taste  and  an  experience 
which  would  incline  him  to  regard  them  as  unalter- 
able. Any  intromission  with  the  uniformity  of 
these  is  most  offensive  to  all  his  predilections ;  or 
perhaps  is  derided  by  him  as  a  superstitious  ima- 
gination. It  has  been  arrogated  as  the  glory  of 
science,  to  have  banished  spectres  from  the  uni- 
verse— and,  in  a  certain  unqualified  homage  to  the 
supremacy  and  unchangeableness  of  nature,  the 
visions  of  the  old  mythology  and  the  pieties  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  have  alike  been  put  to 
scorn.  Man  figures  himself,  as  if  beset  with  the 
necessities  of  an  unconscious  mechanism,  instead  of 
walking  through  life  under  the  observation  and  the 
care  of  a  living  governor.  God  may  continue  to 
be  recognised — but  more  as  a  principle  than  as  a 
person  ;  and  while  His  name  is  in  our  mouths,  our 
hearts  may  be  virtually  in  a  state  of  atheism.  He 
may  still  rank  in  our  imaginations  as  the  Supreme 
Power  of  the  universe — the  cause  of  causes — differ- 
ing  from  them  as  the  original  does  from  its  secon- 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  349 

daries — but  assimilated  to  them  in  being  a  physical 
rather  than  a  moral  agent,  and  as  being  alike 
insensible  to  our  prayers  and  our  offerings.  It  is 
thus  that  Philosophy  may  sometimes  act  with  the 
power  of  a  malignant  genius,  in  withering  from  our 
souls  the  very  essence  and  spirit  of  religion ;  and 
it  is  therefore  of  the  more  importance  to  assign  the 
respective  provinces  of  both.  The  one  or  philoso- 
phy, has  for  its  domain  the  region  of  all  the  visible 
sequences  in  nature — and,  save  in  the  case  of 
miracles,  these  events  of  exceeding  rarity  which  we 
shall  afterwards  investigate,  we  most  willingly  con- 
cede that  within  the  limits  of  this  domain  accessible 
to  human  eyes  and  human  instruments,  nature 
walks  in  a  course  that  is  inflexible.  The  other  or 
religion,  has  for  its  province  a  transcendental 
region  which  lies  beyond  this,  where  there  is  room 
for  all  those  influences  which  most  effectually 
control  the  processes  of  nature,  and  yet  never  once 
cause  that  discoverable  nature  shall  vacillate  from 
her  constancy.  It  is  to  the  unseen  power  who 
presides  over  these  supernal  and  unseen  influences 
that  man  lifts  up  his  prayer.  He  trenches  not  on  the 
domain  of  philosophy — but,  leaving  her  to  observe 
and  to  classify  all  the  sequences  that  are  within 
her  reach,  he  addresses  himself  to  that  Being  who 
turns  at  His  own  pleasure  the  first  term  of  every 
progression  which  science  can  investigate.  By 
converse  with  his  God  he  moves  that  which  moves 
the  universe. 

30.  There  is  a  passage  in  the  epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  where  it  is  said  of  God,  that  He  maketh 
bis  angels  spirits  and  his  ministers  a  flame  of  fire, 


350  ON  A  SrECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

or,  as  better  translated  by  Campbell,  that  He 
maketh  the  winds  His  messengers  and  the  naming 
fire  His  ministers.  What  He  could  have  done 
without  the  messenger  and  without  the  minister, 
He  chooses  to  do  by  them — so  that  at  that  point, 
at  least  where  the  wind  stands  connected  with  its 
immediate  consequent  of  a  storm  or  a  shipwreck, 
there  is  no  miracle.  Go  back  one  step  further  in 
this  series  of  causation.  The  wind  could  have 
been  raised  without  the  instrumentality  of  the 
vapour,  or  by  it.  But  we  further  read  of  God 
that  He  causeth  vapours  to  ascend  from  the  ends 
of  the  earth — and,  if  done  in  this  latter  way,  there 
has  yet  been  no  miracle.  The  vapour  again  may 
have  been  raised  without  the  agency  of  heat  or  by 
it — and  if  in  this  process  He  have  made  the  heat  His 
servant,  even  as  He  maketh  the  flaming  fire  His 
servant — still  in  the  intermediate  chain  between 
the  last  result  and  the  bidding  of  the  Almighty, 
we  can  detect  no  departure  of  visible  nature  from 
her  wonted  constancy ;  and  still  there  has  been  no 
miracle.  We  have  only  to  imagine  of  all  the 
secondary  causes  visible  to  us,  and  intermediate 
between  us  and  God — that,  in  no  instance,  does 
He  act  without  them  but  by  them  ;  and  then  might 
there  be  many  a  special  fulfilment  to  many  a  spe- 
cial request,  yet  without  violence  done  to  any  of 
the  observed  regularities  of  nature.  Let  philoso- 
phy give  all  her  strength  to  the  investigation  of 
these  causes,  let  her  succeed  in  tracing  the  pro- 
gression upward  along  the  ascending  series  by  as 
many  steps  as  the  light  of  observation  can  carry 
her — she  may  widen  thereby  the  domain  of  intel- 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  351 

lect;  but  she  will  still  leave  beyond  it  a  domain 
wide  enough  for  all  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of 
piety.  It  is  enough  for  this  that  there  remains  an 
unknown  interval  between  the  last  cause  which 
philosophy  has  discovered,  and  the  mysterious 
forthgoing  of  Him  who  has  been  termed  the  cause 
of  causes — that  every  thing  He  does  which  is  visible 
to  human  eyes  shall  be  by  the  means  of  visible 
instruments — that  the  Creator  shall  act  by  crea- 
tures, each  retaining  the  powers  and  properties 
which  belong  to  it — so  that  every  succession  w  hich 
wont  to  obtain  between  the  observed  antecedent 
and  the  observed  consequent,  shall  still  be  upheld 
in  the  very  order  which  philosophy  has  investi- 
gated, though  every  moment  under  the  controlling 
hand  of  Him  who  as  he  gave  birth,  also  gives 
movement  and  continuance  to  all  things. 

31.  There  is  something  more  than  a  mere  spec- 
ulative adjustment  concerned  in  this  discussion — 
there  is  besides  a  lesson  which  pervades  the  whole 
business  of  religion,  and  which  is  more  especially 
applicable  to  the  guidance  of  all  who  are  in  earnest 
to  be  right.  After  having  reconciled  the  special 
agency  of  God  with  the  generality  of  all  nature's 
ODservable  laws,  they  will  feel  less  difficulty  in 
reconciling  the  utmost  devotion  in  their  hearts  with 
the  utmost  diligence  in  their  habits  and  in  their 
history.  They  will  perhaps  now  see  how  it  is  that 
performance  the  most  strenuous  does  not  supersede 
Prayer ;  and  that  Prayer  the  most  confident  or  the 
most  earnest  does  not  supersede  performance — 
that  in  fact  we  should  do  as  laboriously  as  if  the 
wished  for  result  depended  wholly  on  ourselves,  and 


352  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

should  pray  as  humbly  and  as  helplessly  as  if  it 
depended  wholly  upon  God.  We  should  on  the 
one  hand  regard  Him  as  the  efficacious  sovereign 
at  whose  bidding  each  event  springs  into  existence 
— for  ushered  in  though  it  be,  by  a  train  of  secon- 
dary causes,  these  causes  are  in  His  hand  and  the 
instruments  of  His  pleasure  ;  and  therefore,  obser- 
vant of  the  lessons  of  piety,  it  is  our  part  to  pray. 
But  we  should  on  the  other  hand  regulate  our 
conduct  on  the  constancy  wherewith  the  secondary 
causes,  after  that  they  are  put  forth,  proceed  in 
wonted  order  from  the  first  of  them  which  is  visible 
onward  to  the  final  result ;  and  therefore,  observant 
of  the  lessons  of  experience,  it  is  our  part  to  act. 
There  is  no  opposition  between  faith  in  the  supre- 
macy of  God  and  faith  in  the  uniformity  of  visible 
nature.  It  is  in  the  exercise  of  the  one  that  we 
pray  to  Him  who  can  order  any  fulfilment,  along 
with  the  causes  and  circumstances  by  which  it  wont 
to  be  preceded.  It  is  in  the  exercise  of  the  other 
that  we  are  led  how  to  act  under  the  existing  causes, 
and  in  the  actual  circumstances  by  which  we  are 
surrounded.  When  we  pray  for  a  safe  and  success- 
ful voyage,  we  may  look  for  a  right  eventual  breeze 
— but  we  regulate  the  guidance  and  seamanship  fcf 
the  vessel  by  the  actual  breezes.  When  we  pray 
for  an  abundant  harvest,  we  may  look  for  the 
favourable  weather — but  the  whole  work  and 
management  of  the  husbandry  proceed  upon  the 
actual  weather.  When  we  pray  for  the  recovery 
of  health,  we  may  look  for  symptoms  of  greater 
promise — but  we  submit  to  the  treatment  of  the 
physician  who  prescribes  to  us  on  his  experience 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  353 

of  the  actual  symptoms.  And  when  we  pray 
whether  for  the  light  of  Christianity  in  our  minds 
or  for  the  love  of  Christianity  in  our  hearts,  we  may 
look  for  the  wished  for  fulfilment — but  we  are  not 
to  look  for  it  in  contravention  to  the  known  sequen- 
ces of  the  mental  philosophy.  When  the  right  faith 
is  wrought  in  us — the  wonted  relation  between 
evidence  and  belief  is  not  dissolved,  and  we  come 
to  the  faith  not  without  evidence  but  by  means  of 
evidence  ;  or  in  the  act  of  seeking  for  it,  of  attend- 
ing to  it.  When  the  right  charity  is  wrought  in  us, 
the  wonted  relation  between  the  object  and  its 
appropriate  emotion  is  not  dissolved — so  that  the 
emotion  is  felt  in  the  act  of  looking  to  the  object. 
When  God  shows  us  that  which  is  good,  this  does 
not  supersede  the  exercise  on  our  part  of  proving 
all  things,  and  then  holding  fast  that  which  is  good 
after  that  we  have  thus  discovered  it.  In  short  all 
the  mental  processes,  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  trace 
them,  might  go  on  as  usual,  and  without  infringe- 
ment on  any  of  the  known  laws  or  sequences  of 
human  thought — though,  at  the  head  as  it  were  of 
these  sequences,  there  might  be  the  application  of  a 
purifying  and  power-giving  virtue  by  which  the 
intellect  is  put  into  its  best  mood,  and  along  with 
a  greater  clearness  of  mental  vision,  there  might  be 
imparted  a  greater  susceptibility  of  the  heart.  This 
quickening  touch  might  have  place  behind  the 
ordinary  processes,  and  which  processes  therefore 
are  not  to  be  dispensed  with.  They  are  interme- 
diate in  fact  between  the  answer  of  the  prayer  and 
the  final  result  or  object  of  the  prayer — so  that  the 
whole   business   of  investigation   is  conducted  as 


354  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

before.  Power  may  have  been  given,  and  yet  not 
a  power  that  works  the  effect  without  the  ordinary 
procedure  of  the  understanding  and  the  heart; 
but  works  the  effect  by  or  through  the  ordinary 
procedure — making  it  valid  now,  when  before  it 
was  impotent,  towards  the  production  of  a  right 
belief  or  a  right  sensibility  or  a  right  purpose. 

32.  The  conclusion  wrhich  we  have  now  come  to 
is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  respective  functions 
of  the  spirit  and  of  the  word.  The  one  reveals 
truth  to  the  mind — but  it  is  only  that  truth  and 
no  other  which  is  enveloped  in  the  Bible.  He 
opens  the  understanding — but  it  is  to  understand 
the  Scriptures.  The  interposition  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  between  a  man  and  his  Bible,  no  more  makes 
palpable  to  him  any  other  truths  or  characters  than 
those  which  be  literally  graven  there — than  the 
interposition  of  the  telescope  between  him  and  some 
distant  shore,  makes  palpable  other  objects  or  other 
characters  of  scenery  than  those  which  be  actually 
graven  upon  the  landscape.  And  just  as  the  tele- 
scope does  not  supersede  the  intense  observations 
by  the  eye  which  looks  through  it  over  a  field  of 
nature,  nay  would  not  supersede  the  ordinary  ma- 
thematics by  which  you  might  become  acquainted 
with  the  positions  and  the  bearings  of  its  various 
objects— so  neither  does  the  light  that  cometh  from 
the  upper  sanctuary  over  the  field  of  revelation 
supersede  the  earnest  direction  of  the  mental  eye 
towards  it,  or  the  busiest  use  of  all  those  scientific 
expedients  by  which  we  obtain  a  more  critical  or  a 
more  systematic  knowledge  of  its  contents.  It  were 
an  important  speculation  that  we  saw — but  better 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  4355 

still,  it  were  the  highest  practical  wisdom  that  we 
proceeded  on  the  consistency  of  these  things.  We 
might  thus  combine  the  wisdom  of  the  letter  with  the 
wisdom  of  the  spirit.  For  the  one  we  must  enter 
upon  the  study  with  the  busy  engagement  of  all  our 
natural  and  acquired  faculties — laboriously  plying 
the  lexicon  and  the  commentary  and  all  the  arts  and 
resources  of  scholarship.  For  the  other  we  mustpray. 
33.  That  intervention  of  the  Deity  by  which 
prayer  is  answered  is  in  the  first  place  effectual, 
and  in  the  second  out  of  sight — effectual,  because 
made  so  as  to  influence  some  one  term  of  the 
causal  procession ;  out  of  sight,  because  made  far 
enough  back  to  be  behind  the  furthest  limit  of  our 
observation.  It  is  thus  that  Philosophy  might 
indefinitely  widen  her  domain,  yet  without  banish- 
ing God  from  the  universe — which  on  the  one  hand 
might  exhibit  throughout  the  harmonies  of  a  general 
system,  and  on  the  other  be  a  theatre  for  all  the 
minutest  adaptations  and  fulfilments  of  a  special 
providence.  The  two-fold  lesson  to  be  gathered 
from  this  contemplation  is  the  utmost  respect  for 
experience,  yet  the  utmost  dependence  of  a  reveren- 
tial and  child-like  piety.  It  is  the  combination  of 
these  which  we  should  labour  to  realize — for  it  is 
only  by  proceeding  upon  both,  that  we  shall  attain 
that  rare  but  most  inestimably  precious  union,  the 
union  of  high  scholarship  with  high  sacredness. 
We  have  no  right  in  the  first  instance  to  look  for  a 
miraculous  reversal  in  our  behalf  of  nature's  pro- 
cesses— and  therefore  no  right  to  aim  at  any  given 
fulfilment  but  by  nature's  ordinary  stepping-stones. 
Therefore,  in  the  whole  business  of  our  mental 


356  »  ON  A  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  AND 

discipline,  we  should  proceed  on  the  certainty  that 
the  known  sequences  of  the  Mental  Philosophy  are 
never  violated — that  belief  never  comes  but  in  the 
train  of  evidence — that  knowledge  never  comes  but 
by  dint  of  converse  and  observation  and  reading 
and  the  busy  exercise  of  all  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties— that  right  affections  never  are  upholden  in  the 
heart  but  in  virtue  of  a  sustained  attention  to  the 
counterpart  objects  which  are  fitted  to  awaken 
them.  We  must  proceed  on  these  maxims  of  a 
sound  experience  in  the  study  of  our  Bibles.  We 
must  betake  ourselves  to  all  the  arts  and  the  me- 
thods of  ordinary  scholarship.  We  must  describe 
the  very  processes  of  criticism  and  of  classification 
which  are  gone  through  in  all  similar  investigations. 
In  the  course  of  this  sustained  and  busy  exercise, 
we  may  pass  out  of  darkness  into  the  marvellous 
light  of  the  gospel — and  yet  it  be  impossible  for  the 
eye  of  the  most  subtle  metaphysician  to  detect  the 
violation  of  one  sequence  in  the  mental  physiology, 
up  to  the  farthest  verge  of  all  that  we  know  of  it. 
Yet  beyond  that  verge  there  sittcth  a  power  which, 
acting  in  the  secret  places  of  the  machinery,  con- 
trols the  final  result  without  deranging  the  wonted 
order  of  those  palpable  evolutions  which  go  imme- 
diately before  it.  It  is  to  Him  we  pray,  that  from 
the  unseen  fountain-head  of  influence  He  may  guide 
and  prosper  the  machine  without  disturbance  to  any 
of  its  visible  harmonies.  It  is  to  a  presiding  touch 
from  His  omniscience  that  all  the  success  is  owing. 
The  power  and  the  glory  are  His — and  yet  the  care 
and  the  pains-taking,  the  work  and  the  labour  of 
christian  scholarship  are  all  our  own. 


THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  357 

34.  We  must  not  expatiate  too  much  on  this 
topic — yet  we  like  not  to  omit  a  remark  that  has 
often  occurred  to  us  on  our  Saviour's  temptation. 
It  would  seem  as  if  both  the  principles  that  we 
are  now  urging  entered  into  the  moral  of  this  cele- 
brated passage  in  his  history.  He  in  opposition 
to  experience  withstood  the  trial  that  would  have 
seduced  Him  from  His  confidence  in  God — and 
on  the  maxim  that  man  liveth  not  by  bread  alone 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  God's 
mouth,  He  feared  not  the  death  which  after  so  long 
privation  all  the  sequences  of  nature  and  history 
pronounced  to  be  inevitable.  Yet  in  respect  for 
experience,  or  rather  for  the  established  ordination 
of  God,  He  would  not,  in  compliance  with  another 
suggestion  precipitate  Himself  from  the  pinnacle  of 
the  temple.  He  would  not  commit  His  body  to 
such  an  antecedent  as,  according  to  all  the  simila- 
rities and  sequences  of  bygone  occurrence,  must 
have  involved  its  consequent  destruction.  There 
is  finely  blended  in  this  exhibition  the  wisdom  of 
experience  with  the  wisdom  of  piety.  We  have 
no  right  so  to  count  on  a  miracle  in  our  favour,  as 
wantonly  to  place  ourselves  in  a  condition  which  by 
all  observation  is  one  of  danger  or  of  certain  calamity. 
Yet  if  so  placed  by  a  series  of  uncontrollable  events, 
we  ought  still  to  trust  with  unshaken  firmness  in 
God.  It  is  the  part  of  sacred  wisdom  to  be  regard- 
ful of  the  evolutions  of  providence.  It  is  the  part 
of  secular  wisdom  to  be  regardful  of  the  notices  of 
experience.  There  is  a  real  harmony  between 
them.  The  constancy  of  nature  is  that  on  which, 
in  no  circumstances,  we  should  cease  to  proceed. 


358  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

The  protection  of  heaven  is  that  for  which  in  no 
circumstances  we  should  cease  to  pray.  It  is  on 
the  former  that  all  human  industry  turns — for  what 
is  the  object  of  industry  but  to  realize  certain  ante- 
cedents on  which  certain  consequents  might  be 
expected  to  follow  ?  It  is  on  the  latter  that  our 
devotion  turns — and  so  labour  supersedes  not 
prayer,  prayer  supersedes  not  labour.  They  have 
always  been  the  most  influential  men  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  who  like  the  apostle  united  both  these — 
that  is,  the  utmost  diligence  as  if  man  did  all,  and 
the  utmost  dependence  as  if  God  did  all. 

35.  Let  us  only  remark  in  conclusion,  that  we 
shall  find  this  pringiple  to  be  of  pervading  importance 
in  Theology.  It  runs  in  fact  along  that  whole  line 
of  speculation,  where  lie  the  innumerable  questions 
which  respect  the  limits  of  the  divine  and  the  human 
agency,  and  so  is  of  mighty  interest  both  in  the 
Dogmatic  and  the  Moral  or  Practical  Theology. 
The  speculation  may  be  difficult  to  adjust — but  the 
practice  or  the  habit  is  invaluable — of  him  who  can 
both  look  intelligently  around  upon  all  that  is 
visible,  and  look  piously  upward  unto  God. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

On  the  Defects  and  the  Uses  of  Natural  Theology. 

1.  Natural  Theology  in  the  hands  of  some  of  its 
expounders  has  not  had  justice  done  to  it;  and 
this  has  aggravated  the  views  of  many  respecting 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  359 

its  impotency  and  its  blindness.  The  unwarranta- 
ble metaphysics  which  have  been  called  to  the  aid 
of  this  high  demonstration,  have  tended  to  obscure 
the  reasoning  both  for  the  existence  and  the  cha- 
racter of  God. 

2.  We  have  already  attempted  to  appreciate  a 
style  of  demonstration  respecting  the  divine  exis- 
tence, of  which  we  can  at  least  say  that  it  has  no 
efficacy  with  ourselves.  And  accordingly  our 
decided  preference  is  for  the  a  posteriori  to  the 
a  priori  argument.  Now  the  same  style  of  demon- 
stration has  been  applied  with  equal  confidence  to 
the  topic  of  the  divine  attributes.  In  the  works 
of  Dr.  Clarke  and  others,  they  are  expounded 
synthetically,  though  he  admits  of  the  intelligence 
of  God,  that  it  cannot  be  properly  and  strictly 
demonstrated  a  priori.  For  this  attribute,  he  does 
make  appeal  to  the  existing  order  and  constitution 
of  things — and  after  having  based  as  it  were  one 
property  or  perfection  of  the  Godhead  on  the 
evidence  of  observation,  we  do  feel  that  though  he 
resumes  the  synthetic  process,  he  walks  henceforth 
on  a  firmer  ground-work,  because  of  the  stronger 
and  more  tangible  material  that  is  now  incorporated 
with  the  reasoning.  For  example,  that  it  is  the 
property  of  the  highest  intelligence  not  only  to 
employ  the  fittest  means,  but  to  select  the  best  and 
worthiest  ends — or,  that  a  Being  possessed  of  all 
power,  being  elevated  above  rivalship  and  fear, 
is  exempted  from  every  temptation  to  malice  or 
envy,  and  so  is  exposed  to  no  adverse  influence 
which  might  else  have  hurt  the  entireness  of  His 
character  as  a  Being  possessed  of  all  goodness — 


360  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

these  if  not  altogether  resistless  considerations, 
are  at  least  more  within  the  grasp  of  ordinary 
comprehension  than  certain  anterior  passages  in 
his  demonstrations  of  the  attributes  of  God.  But 
we  cannot  sympathize  with  his  argument  for 
the  immensity  of  God,  grounded  on  the  consi- 
deration, that,  if  without  contradiction  He  can  be 
absent  from  one  place,  He  may  also  without  con- 
tradiction be  absent  from  all  places ;  and  so  not  be 
a  necessary  or  self-existent  Being.  He  holds  the 
same  argument  for  the  ubiquity  of  God,  which  he 
holds  to  be  distinct  from  the  former  attribute — the 
one  being  the  infinity  of  His  immensity,  and  the 
other  the  infinity  of  His  fulness.  He  argues  even 
so  too  of  the  Unity  of  God,  alleging  that,  "  to 
suppose  two  (or  more)  distinct  Beings  existing  of 
themselves  necessarily  and  independent  of  each 
other,  implies  this  plain  contradiction ;  that  each  of 
them  being  independent  of  the  other,  they  may 
either  of  them  be  supposed  to  exist  alone,  so  that 
it  will  be  no  contradiction  to  imagine  the  other  not 
to  exist ;  and  consequently  neither  of  them  will  be 
necessarily  existing."  This  will  serve  as  a  specimen. 
The  whole  tract  of  this  a  priori  reasoning  seems 
equally  obscure,  save  at  the  place  of  transition 
which  we  have  just  referred  to  from  the  natural  to 
the  moral  attributes. 

3.  The  natural  attributes  of  God  are  His  Self- 
existence,  His  Eternity,  His  Omnipresence,  His 
Unity,  His  Power,  His  Omniscience,  His  Wisdom. 
We  prefer  no  charge  against  the  views  which  are 
commonly  given,  in  this  department  of  Natural 
Theology,  by  the  most  approved  writers.     It  is  on 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.    361 

the  moral  attributes  that  we  are  most  exposed  to 
meagre  and  imperfect  representations  of  the  Deity, 
In  regard  to  the  natural  attributes,  it  is  on  the  basis 
of  observed  facts,  of  what  we  see  and  know  of  the 
actual  universe  that  the  demonstration  of  them 
mainly  rests.  But  Dr.  Thomas  Brown,  brief  as 
he  is  on  the  Theistical  department  of  his  course — 
and  slender  like  almost  all  his  fellows  as  we  hold 
him  to  be  in  the  view  which  he  entertains  of  God's 
moral  characteristics,  has  comprised  in  the  correct 
metaphysics  of  a  few  sentences  which  we  shall  now 
quote,  all  that  we  are  desirous  of  impressing  ere 
we  proceed  to  a  few  remarks  on  the  moral  attri- 
butes, which  are  the  justice  and  the  truth  and  the 
righteousness  and  the  holiness  and  the  goodness 
of  God. 

4.  "  The  manifest  order  of  the  universe,  in  the 
relation  of  parts  to  parts,  and  of  their  joint  results 
to  other  joint  results  of  other  parts,  is  a  proof  then 
of  some  designing  power,  from  which  all  this  mag- 
nificent order  took  its  rise ;  and  the  great  Being, 
to  whom,  in  discovering  design,  we  ascribe  the 
designing  power,  is  the  Being  whom  we  denominate 
God.  The  harmony  which  is  the  proof  of  design, 
is  itself  a  proof  of  the  relative  unity  of  that  design. 
This  designing  power  is  one  then,  in  the  only  sense 
in  which  we  are  entitled  to  speak  either  of  divine 
unity  or  plurality,  as  indicated  by  the  forms  of 
nature  before  us, — for  it  is  only  from  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  universe,  that  we  are  capable  of 
inferring  the  existence  of  any  higher  being  what- 
ever ;  and,  therefore,  as  we  have  no  traces  of  any 
other  being,  than  the  universe,  directly  or  indirectly, 

VOL.  II.  o. 


362  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

exhibits  to  us, — the  designing  power  is  not  to 
our  reason  more  than  one;  since  in  every  thing 
which  we  behold,  there  is  that  unity  of  design, 
from  which  alone  we  have  any  reason  to  infer  a 
designer.  The  laws  of  motion  which  prevail  on 
our  earth,  prevail  equally,  wherever  we  are  capa- 
ble of  discovering  motion.  On  our  own  earth, 
where  our  observation  is  so  ample,  in  the  infinity 
of  objects  around  us,  there  is  no  irregularity  or 
opposition  of  contrivances,  but  all  have  proportions 
or  analogies  which  mark  them  as  the  result  of  one 
harmonious  design.  There  may  be  many  spiritual 
beings  of  greater  or  less  excellence,  though  there 
is  no  evidence  of  them  in  nature ;  for  where  there 
is  no  evidence  whatever,  it  is  as  absurd  to  deny 
absolutely,  as  to  affirm.  But  there  is,  as  I  have  said, 
no  evidence  of  any  such  beings ;  and  the  designing 
power  then,  as  marked  to  us  by  all  which  we  per- 
ceive in  nature,  is  one,  in  the  only  sense  in  which  the 
unity  of  the  Supreme  Being  can  be  demonstrable  or 
even  at  all  conceivable  by  us.  The  power  of  which 
we  speak,  exists  to  our  reason,  only  as  the  author 
of  the  design  which  we  trace ;  and  the  design  which 
we  trace,  various  as  it  may  be  in  the  parts  to  which 
it  extends,  is  all  one  harmonious  contrivance. 

"  This  designing  unity,  that  is  relative  to  what 
we  see,  is  all,  however,  which  we  are  logically  en- 
titled to  infer  from  the  phenomena ;  for  the  absolute 
and  necessary  unity  of  the  Divine  Power,  as 
attempted  to  be  proved  by  metaphysical  arguments 
a  priori  that  are  at  best  only  a  laborious  trifling 
with  words,  which  either  signify  nothing  or  prove 
nothing,  is  more  than,  in  our  state  of  ignorance, 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  363 

independently  of  revelation,  we  are  entitled  to 
assert.  The  unity,  which  alone,  from  the  light  of 
nature,  we  can  with  confidence  assert,  is  hence  not 
strictly  exclusive,  but  wholly  relative  to  that  one 
design,  which  we  are  capable  of  tracing  in  the 
frame  of  the  universe. 

"  This  one  designing  power,  we  are  accustomed 
to  say,  is  omniscient,  and,  in  the  only  sense  in 
which  that  phrase  can  have  any  meaning,  when 
used  by  creatures  so  ignorant  as  ourselves,  to  sig- 
nify our  impossibility  of  discovering  any  limits  to 
the  wisdom  which  formed  the  magnificent  design 
of  the  world,; — the  phrase  may  be  used,  as  expres- 
sive only  of  admiration,  that  is  justly  due  to  wis- 
dom so  sublime.  He  who  formed  the  universe, 
and  adapted  it,  in  all  its  parts,  for  those  gracious 
purposes,  to  which  it  is  subservient,  must,  of 
course,  have  known  the  relations  which  he  esta- 
blished ;  and  knowing  every  relation  of  every  thing 
existing,  he  may  truly  be  said  to  be  omniscient,  in 
his  relation  to  every  thing  which  exists.  But  it  is 
in  this  definite  sense  only,  that  the  phrase  has  any 
meaning,  as  used  by  creatures,  whose  knowledge  is 
itself  so  very  limited.  Beyond  this  universe,  it  is 
presumptuous  for  man  to  venture,  even  in  the 
homage  which  he  offers.  The  absolute  wisdom  of 
the  Deity,  transcendent  as  it  may  be,  when  com- 
pared, even  with  that  noble  display  of  it  which  is 
within  us,  and  without  us,  wherever  we  turn  our 
eyes,  we  are  incapable  even  of  conceiving;  and 
admiring  what  we  know,  an  awful  veneration  of 
what  is  unknown,  is  all  that  remains  for  us.  Our 
only  meaning  of  the  term  omniscience  then,  does 


364  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AN© 

not  arrogate  to  us,  any  knowledge  of  those  infinite! 
relations,  which  we  assert  the  Deity  to  know.  It 
is  merely  that  the  Supreme  Being  knows  every 
relation  of  every  existing  thing— and  that  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  conceive  any  limit  to  his 
knowledge. 

"  His  omnipotence,  in  like  manner,  as  conceived 
by  us,  whatever  it  may  be  in  reality,  is  not  a 
power  extending  to  circumstances,  of  which,  from 
our  own  ignorance,  we  must  be  incapable  of  form- 
ing a  conception  ;  but  a  power  which  has  produced 
whatever  exists,  and  to  which  we  cannot  discover 
any  limit.  It  may  be  capable  of  producing  wonders, 
as  far  surpassing  those  which  we  perceive,  as  the 
whole  fabric  of  the  universe  surpasses  the  little 
workmanship  of  mortal  hands ;  but  the  relation  of 
the  Deity  to  these  unexisting  or  unknown  objects, 
is  beyond  the  feebleness  of  our  praise,  as  it  is 
beyond  the  arrogance  of  our  conception. 

"  God,  then,  the  Author  of  the  universe,  exists. 
He  exists,  with  a  wisdom,  which  could  comprehend 
every  thing  that  fills  infinity,  in  one  great  design, 
— with  a  power,  which  could  fill  infinity  itself,  with 
the  splendid  Avonders  that  are,  wherever  we  endea- 
vour to  extend  our  search.  We  know  no  limit  to 
his  wisdom,  for  all  the  knowledge  which  we  are 
capable  of  acquiring,  flows  from  Him,  as  from  its 
source ;  we  know  nothing  which  can  limit  His 
power,  for  every  thing  of  which  we  know  the 
existence,  is  the  work  of  His  hand." — Brown,  VoL 
IV.  p.  423—427. 

5.  That  the  proof  of  the  moral  rests  on  a  distinct 
consideration  from  that  of  the  natural  attributes 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  365 

may  thus  be  made  obvious.  The  adaptation  of 
means  to  an  end  of  itself  demonstrates  intelligence, 
and  also  power  when  the  means  are  effectual. 
But  to  be  satisfied  that  there  is  goodness  in  the 
adaptation,  we  must  ascertain  what  the  end  par- 
ticularly is,  we  must  be  presented  with  adaptation 
of  means  to  the  end.  The  proof  both  for  intelli- 
gence and  power  may  be  as  complete  with  one  set 
of  ends  as  with  another  set  wholly  opposite. 
There  may  be  as  thorough  an  impress  of  skill  and 
energy  on  a  machinery  of  torture,  as  on  some  bland 
and  beneficent  contrivance  that  operates  a  blessing 
throughout  the  sphere  of  its  activity — on  the  struc- 
ture, for  example,  of  a  serpent's  envenomed  tooth, 
as  on  the  structure  of  those  teeth  which  prepare  the 
aliment  for  digestion,  and  subserve  one  of  the  most 
useful  functions  of  the  animal  economy.  It  is 
thus  that  a  wicked  and  malignant  spirit  could  give 
decisive,  but  most  terrible  demonstration  withal  of 
his  Natural  Attributes — so  that  these  on  the  one 
hand  may  be  most  strikingly  and  satisfactorily 
evinced,  while  the  Moral  Attributes  on  the  other 
may  be  involved  in  the  mystery  of  those  contra- 
dictory appearances  in  nature,  which  the  wisdom 
of  man  has  so  vainly  endeavoured  to  unravel. 

6.  The  adaptation  of  parts  to  an  end  might  of 
itself  demonstrate  the  intelligence  and  power  of  a 
creative  mind — nor  is  it  needed  for  this  conclusion, 
that  we  should  advert  to  what  the  end  particularly 
is.  This  latter  inquiry  may  lead  to  other  conclu- 
sions. It  may  throw  light  on  the  moral  attributes 
of  the  Creator.  Adaptation  for  an  end  might 
indicate  all  the  natural  attributes — the  power,  the 


366  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

skill,  the  unity,  the  Omnipresence  of  the  Deity. 
Adaptation  for  the  end  might  indicate  Him  to  be  a 
God  either  of  benevolence  or  cruelty,  a  God  of 
virtue  or  vice,  a  God  who  loved  righteousness  and 
hated  iniquity,  or  a  God  who  patronises  the  wicked 
and  delights  in  thwarting  and  discouraging  the 
good.  So  that  after  the  natural  attributes  have 
been  fully  ascertained,  the  moral  might  still  be  in 
a  state  of  deepest  ambiguity.  From  adaptations 
alone,  and  without  our  adverting  to  the  special 
object  of  them,  we  may  gather  the  power  and 
wisdom,  and  virtual  presence  of  the  Deity  in  all 
places  of  the  Creation ;  and  His  complete  intelli- 
gence of  every  thing  that  is  going  on  through  its 
mighty  amplitudes ;  and  even  His  Unity,  as  far 
as  this  can  be  gathered  from  unity  of  counsel ; 
and  last  of  all  His  Eternity,  which  is  irresistibly 
obtruded  upon  us  indeed  by  the  consideration 
of  the  very  simplest  elements  of  thought.  Thus 
it  is  that  from  adaptations  in  the  general,  we 
may  be  able  to  complete  one  list  of  the  Divine 
perfections.  But  there  is  another  list  comprehend- 
ing His  goodness ;  His  justice ;  His  truth ;  His 
august  and  inviolable  sacredness,  or  in  other 
words,  that  instant  and  determined  recoil  from 
evil  which  hath  affixed  to  Him  the  denomination 
of  Holy.  Now  adaptation  alone,  or  adaptation 
in  the  general,  will  not  suffice  to  indicate  these  as 
the  characteristics  of  Him  who  hath  made  and 
who  rules  the  universe.  To  ascertain  these,  we 
must  look  to  the  objects  of  this  varied  adaptation. 
The  skilful  and  effective  adaptation  of  means  to  an 
end  may  indicate  both  power  and  wisdom — whether 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  367 

the  end  be  such  as  would  minister  complacency  to 
a  good  or  an  evil  Spirit — to  one  that  delights  in  a 
world  peopled  with  happiness  and  virtue,  or  to 
one  that  hath  fiendish  satisfaction  in  the  agonies 
of  a  sentient  creation  and  in  the  triumph  and  pre- 
valence of  wickedness  over  it.  There  may  be 
refinements  of  most  exquisite  ingenuity,  and  the 
felt  demonstration  given  of  a  power  mighty  and 
resistless,  in  the  machinery  of  a  system  that  is 
ever  working  off  and  by  a  multiplying  process  new. 
and  perpetual  additions  to  the  amount  of  disease 
and  depravity  and  death.  The  subserviences  even 
of  a  system  like  this  might  be  enough  to  mark  the 
utmost  skill  and  the  utmost  energy  on  the  part  of 
its  Author.  In  a  word  from  the  mere  operation  of 
the  instruments  which  He  hath  formed,  we  may 
collect  His  natural  attributes.  But  to  fix  our 
belief  of  His  moral  attributes,  we  must  look  to  the 
result  of  that  operation. 

7.  The  untenable  metaphysics  which  have  been 
employed  in  demonstration  of  the  being  and  natural 
attributes  of  God,  have  given  to  Natural  Theology 
an  aspect  of^mysticism  which  is  not  necessary  and 
not  natural  to  her.  But  this  is  not  the  whole  of 
the  injustice  which  she  has  received  at  the  hand 
of  her  advocates.  If  she  have  been  obscured  by 
one  style  of  reasoning  in  respect  to  the  natural 
attributes  of  God,  she  has  been  weakened  and 
made  precarious  by  another  style  of  argumentation 
in  respect  to  His  moral  attributes ;  and  the  princi- 
pal defect,  as  we  have  already  hinted,  lies  in  the 
confinement  of  the  reasoning  to  fewer  data  than 
nature  has  actually  set  before  us — to  the  pheno- 


368  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

mena,  and  these  viewed  but  partially  of  external 
nature,  apart  from  the  phenomena  of  our  own 
moral  nature  or  the  lessons  and  the  intimations  of 
human  conscience ;  and  certain  it  is,  that  observa- 
tions made  on  the  outer  field  of  society  might  of 
themselves  afford  a  much  greater  amount  of 
instruction,  respecting  the  character  of  God,  than 
many  of  our  Theists  have  been  inclined  to  draw 
from  it — particularly  those  who  would  limit  their 
attention  to  but  one  moral  perfection  of  the  Deity, 
and  who  expatiate  on  His  benevolence  alone.  It 
is  this  which  has,  not  only  limited,  but  greatly 
weakened  their  conclusions.  For  on  looking 
singly  to  the  good  and  the  evil  of  life  we  can  infer 
the  divine  benevolence  only  from  the  balance  of  the 
former  over  the  latter.  But  looking  to  that  good 
and  that  evil  in  connexion  with  their  moral  causes, 
we  can,  not  only  more  firmly  establish  the  divine 
benevolence ;  but,  in  conjunction  with  this,  elicit 
evidence  of  a  very  striking  character  for  the  righte- 
ousness of  Him  who  is  the  Governor  and  Parent 
of  the  human  family.* 

8.  When  the  good  and  the  ill  of  life  are  looked 
to  in  themselves,  and  apart  from  the  consideration 
of  their  moral  causes,  they  seem  wholly  incapable 
of  being  turned  to  any  theological  conclusion  which 
can  be  at  all  depended  upon.     For  first  it  must  be 

*  See  a  former  chapter  on  the  capacities  of  the  world  for 
making  a  virtuous  species  happy — the  reasonings  of  which  we  do 
not  repeat  here — our  only  motive  for  reverting  to  the  subject 
at  all  being  to  expose  the  precariousness  of  those  views,  which 
have  reduced  Natural  Theology  to  a  far  more  meagre  and  pre- 
carious system  of  doctrine  than  is  suited  to  the  real  strength  of 
its  own  proper  and  inherent  evidences. 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  369 

admitted  that  the  joys  of  life  are  innumerable — and 
it  were  obviously  an  unconquerable  task,  should  we 
attempt  the  description  of  them.  Who  can  tell 
those  countless  diversities  of  pleasure,  which  are 
ministered  by  the  eye  and  the  ear  and  the  other 
senses — or  rather  ministered  to  us  by  external 
objects  through  these  various  inlets  of  pleasurable 
sensation — and,  if  to  these  we  add  the  pleasures  of 
taste  and  affection  and  intellect,  they  altogether 
compose  a  vast  amount  and  variety  of  happiness. 
In  the  utter  impossibility  of  making  a  full  or  dis- 
tinct enumeration  of  nature's  joys — should  we  be 
required  but  to  specify  a  few — then,  at  random  and 
among  the  first  which  offer  to  our  notice,  might  we 
instance  the  cheerfulness  of  light,  and  those  mani- 
fold hues  of  loveliness  into  which  it  is  broken  and 
wherewith  it  is  reflected  from  the  face  of  our  world 
. — and  then  the  glories  of  Nature's  panorama,  by 
every  look  at  which  there  are  souls  of  finer  mould, 
that  send  forth  a  responding  ecstasy  upon  the  land- 
scape. And  to  pass  from  this  order  of  gratification 
to  another  yet  higher  in  the  scale,  there  are  the 
delights  of  prosperous  study — the  calm  but  intense 
satisfaction  wherewith  the  understanding  imbibes 
of  its  proper  aliment — the  zest  more  particularly  of 
the  youthful  mind  now  opening  and  advancing 
towards  the  maturity  of  its  powers,  as  it  hurries  on 
from  one  perspective  to  another  in  the  field  of  con- 
templation— the  charm  which  none  but  scholars 
know,  that  lies  in  the  march  of  successful  inquiry ; 
and  that,  not  merely  in  the  truths  which  are 
attained,  but  in  the  very  train  and  exercise  of  the 
reasonings  which  lead  to  them.  But  as  the  philo- 
Q2 


370  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

sopher3  of  our  world  are  few,  let  us  rather  instance 
those  joys  and  satisfactions  which  are  accessible  to 
all — and,  laying  aside  those  which  depend  upon 
sense,  let  us  notice  those  which  depend  on  the 
sympathies  that  reciprocate  between  man  and  man, 
whether  in  jovial  companionship  or  in  the  serious 
and  tender  relations  of  domestic  society.  There 
is  a  felt  and  pleasurable  glow  even  in  those  more 
distant  exchanges  of  courtesy  that,  whether  in  the 
bustle  of  a  market-place  or  along  the  streets  of  a 
crowded  city,  indicate  the  acting  and  reacting  of 
good  will  between  man  and  his  fellows.  But  when 
this  mutual  attraction  becomes  more  adhesive  and 
peculiar — when  it  strengthens  into  friendship  or 
love  or  the  affinities  of  kindred — when  from  the 
hilarities  of  the  social  board,  it  passes  upward  to 
vows  of  constancy,  or  the  services  of  faithful  and 
devoted  attachment — when  the  heart  regales  itself 
among  the  charities  of  home  ;  and  the  soberness  of 
age,  and  the  sanguine  buoyancy  of  youth,  and  the 
simplicity  of  sportive  childhood,  are  all  blended 
together  under  one  parental  roof  into  one  delightful 
harmony — then  it  is  that  we  are  called  to  witness  in 
one  of  its  most  blissful  conditions,  that  humanity 
which  has  been  made  so  exquisitely  and  so  variously 
alive  to  blessedness.  Indeed  the  whole  imagery 
of  family  life  is  bright  with  the  promises  of  enjoy- 
ment ;  and  when  to  these  we  add  the  notices  that 
break  upon  our  observation  from  a  more  general 
and  extended  survey  of  human  intercourse — such 
as  the  hearty  gratulations  of  the  festive  party, 
and  the  songs  of  merry  companionship,  and  these 
irrepressible  gaieties  of  man  responded  to  by  the 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  371 

frolic  and  gambols  of  the  inferior  creation — they  all 
seem  to  indicate  a  world  made  for  happiness — a 
scene  of  jubilee  lighted  up  by  the  glorious  luminary 
that  is  suspended  over  it — and  in  which  we  may  at 
once  see  the  beatitudes  of  our  existing  creation — the 
bounteousness  of  Him  from  whom  it  has  sprung. 

9.  But  over  against  this  there  is  another  enu- 
meration to  be  made.  There  are  the  ills  of  life  as 
well  as  its  gratifications — and  many  are  the  theo- 
logians who  have  attempted  to  strike  a  balance 
between  these  rival  elements.  They  have  tried 
their  arithmetic  upon  this  question ;  and  contend, 
not  for  the  benevolence  of  God  alone,  but  for  the 
infinity  of  His  benevolence,  from  the  overplus  of 
the  good  above  the  evil.  It  does  not  seem  a  very 
clear  demonstration  of  this  attribute — when  thus 
made  out,  not  by  the  absolute  happiness  of  crea- 
tion, but  only  by  a  difference — a  difference  of 
superiority,  it  is  alleged,  over  its  misery.  One 
is  apt  to  think  that  Infinite  Power  might  have 
overruled  all  the  tendencies  to  suffering  on  earth, 
so  as  to  have  maintained  within  its  confines  a  full 
and  unexcepted  blessedness.  In  the  phenomena 
of  sentient  nature,  there  is  a  perplexity  -which  we 
fear  cannot  be  extricated,  by  the  mere  consideration 
of  Power  and  Goodness  alone.  Amid  the  vast 
capacities  for  enjoyment  both  of  mind  and  of  the 
external  nature  by  which  it  is  surrounded — there 
are  the  undoubted  symptoms  and  the  undoubted 
effects  of  a  very  sore  distemper,  over  the  whole  of 
that  sentient  creation  which  is  within  the  reach  of 
our  experience.  We  need  not  speak  of  that 
countenance  of  menace  and  boding  disaster  which 


372  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

is  put  on  by  inanimate  things — or,  for  the  smile 
and  the  verdure  and  the  gracefulness  of  nature  in 
her  happier  moods,  tell  also  of  her  angry  tempests, 
of  her  wasteful  volcanoes,  of  her  sweeping  hurri- 
canes and  floods,  or  of  that  dread  thunder  where- 
with she  overawes  a  prostrate  world.  It  is 
enough  faithfully  to  record  the  moral  perversities 
wherewith  the  social  state  of  man  is  vexed  and 
agitated — the  distrust  and  the  selfishness  and  the 
busy  competitions  of  pride  or  interest,  which  are 
constantly  infusing  of  their  gall  into  the  whole 
business  of  human  intercourse.  We  advert  not 
merely  to  those  outcries  of  resentment  which  might 
so  often  be  heard  on  the  broad  and  general  face  of 
society — but  to  those  secret  heart-burnings  which 
fester  in  the  bosom  of  families — the  sad  alienations 
that  obtain  under  the  same  roof  between  those 
whose  tastes  and  whose  tempers  are  wholly  uncon- 
genial— the  gloom,  the  discontent,  the  bitterness, 
that  so  mar  those  pictures  of  enchantment  on  which 
the  sentimentalist  loves  to  dwell ;  and  by  which  the 
domestic  retreat,  that  he  would  fondly  liken  to  one 
of  the  bowers  of  Elysium,  may  in  fact  be  peopled 
by  the  demoniacal  passions  of  hatred,  malice  and 
revenge.  At  all  events,  the  representation  which, 
when  we  attend  but  to  one  set  of  elements  looks 
so  flattering  and  so  fair,  is  sadly  shaded  or  alter- 
nated by  another  set  of  elements  now  in  busy  and 
actual  operation — so  as  to  make  of  human  life 
either  a  very  prosaic  or  a  very  chequered  story — 
and  to  prove  that  if  there  be  materials  within  our 
reach  whereof  one  might  build  a  lovely  and  inviting 
paradise ;  there  are  other  materials  actually  poured 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  373 

forth  upon  our  world,  and  which,  had  they  been 
poured  without  mixture  and  without  mitigation, 
would  indeed  have  made  of  it  a  most  dire  and 
dreadful  Pandemonium. 

10.  Now  the  puzzle  is,  how  to  clear  our  way  to 
any  definite  or  satisfactory  conclusion,  amid  this 
warfare  of  good  and  evil — and  what  possibly  to 
make  of  it,  in  our  attempts  to  determine  the  cha- 
racter of  Him  who  willed  such  an  enigmatical 
world  as  ours  into  existence.  It  were  indeed  a 
most  enigmatical  world,  did  it  offer  nothing  to  our 
view  from  which  to  infer  the  moral  character  of 
God,  but  the  mere  balance  of  its  pleasures  and  its 
pains.  We  should  be  utterly  at  a  loss  how  to 
manage  such  a  computation — nor,  through  the 
multitude  and  perplexity  of  its  materials,  could  we 
find  any  clear  or  confident  way  by  which  to  strike 
the  numerical  difference  between  the  good  and  the 
evil.  Even  though  the  respective  summations 
could  be  accurately  made,  still  the  question  would 
invariably  obtrude  itself,  why  any  evil  at  all  ?  If 
we  indeed  live  under  the  government  of  a  God 
whose  goodness  and  whose  power  are  both  per- 
fect, why  under  such  an  economy  should  there  be 
so  much  as  the  slightest  taint  or  remainder  of 
evil  ?  Why  is  it  that  we  have  any  balance  between 
the  opposite  ingredients  to  adjust?  The  mere 
predominance  of  one  of  these  ingredients  will  not 
satisfy  a  spirit  that  is  exercised  with  difficulties 
because  of  the  mere  existence  of  the  other  ingre- 
dient. And  even  this  predominance  of  good  is  so 
very  questionable.  How  shall  w,e  proceed  to  take 
an  inventory  of  all  the  beatitudes,  and  then  of  all 


374  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

the  banes  of  our  earthly  existence?  By  what 
arithmetic  shall  we  settle  the  difference  betwixt 
them — or  where  is  the  one  argument  that  without 
any  process  of  this  sort  will  guide  us  at  once  to  a 
right  conclusion  upon  the  subject  ?  We  are  aware 
that  the  love  of  life  has  been  employed  for  such  an 
argument.  But  the  love  of  life  is  not  the  fruit  of 
any  previous  calculation  on  the  worth  of  the  com- 
modity. It  is  an  instinct ;  and  there  is  in  it  we 
believe  a  great  deal  more  of  horror  at  the  pains  of 
that  awful  and  unknown  transition  by  which  we 
are  conducted  away  from  it,  than  there  is  of  regret 
at  the  privation  of  any  or  all  put  together  of  its 
affirmative  joys.  We  think  it  must  be  quite  pal- 
pable, that  far  the  most  noticeable,  and  therefore 
far  the  most  vivid  and  powerful  of  those  emotions 
which  are  connected  with  our  view  of  death,  is  the 
recoil  wherewith  nature  shrinks  from  its  imagined 
agonies  and  terrors — and  that  such  should  be  the 
agonies  and  terrors  of  every  sentient  creature  who 
is  capable  of  anticipation,  and  more  particularly 
that  all  without  exception  who  belong  to  the  family 
of  man  should  have  to  bear  upon  their  spirits  the 
burden  of  so  dread  a  perspective,  that  their  life 
should  be  exposed  at  every  turn  to  the  damping 
visitation  of  such  a  thought,  or  that  the  progress 
of  their  existence  through  the  world  should  only 
be  easy  and  tolerable  by  the  steeping  of  all  their 
senses  in  the  utter  forgetfulness  of  its  sore  and 
affecting  termination — this  surely  marks  a  state, 
whence  it  were  most  difficult  to  infer  the  good- 
ness of  Him  by  whom  it  is  originated.  Nor 
when  we  look  to  the  pain  and  the  shrinking  and 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  375 

the  breathlessness  and  the  insufferable  languor  or 
sickness  which  mark  the  approach  of  the  last  mes- 
senger ;  or  look  to  the  hideous  spectacle  which  he 
leaves  after  having  fulfilled  his  errand,  and  con- 
signed the  once  animated  body  to  the  loathsome- 
ness of  the  grave — can  we  avoid  remarking  the 
total  diversity  which  there  is,  between  the  rough 
lessons  of  experience,  and  the  lessons  of  a  poetic 
and  sentimental  Theism. 

1 1 .  But  while  the  good  and  the  ill  of  life,  regarded 
in  no  other  light  than  as  so  much  happiness  on  the 
one  hand  and  so  much  misery  on  the  other,  seem 
wholly  insufficient  data  for  the  determination  even  of 
one  of  the  moral  attributes — if  viewed  in  connexion 
with  their  causes,  as  we  have  attempted  to  do  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  they  furnish  very  strong  pro- 
babilities  both  for  the  benevolence  and  the  right- 
eousness of  God.  Beside  which  we  have  a  still 
stronger  argument  in  the  supremacy  of  conscience 
or  of  a  moral  sense  in  man,  which  goes  far  to  prove 
Him  a  God  who  combines  in  His  character  all 
the  virtues.  Whatever  an  enlightened  conscience 
deems  to  be  right  or,  in  other  words,  whatever  the 
Creator  has  made  the  creature  feel  with  entire  and 
universal  consent  to  be  of  paramount  obligation, 
that  we  are  led  to  regard  as  the  expression  and  the 
evidence  of  a  corresponding  virtue  in  the  divine 
nature.  Else  there  is  a  dissonance  between  what 
we,  in  the  exercise  of  our  best  and  highest  princi- 
ples, feel  to  be  virtuous,  and  the  actual  character  of 
the  Godhead — or  He  hath  so  fashioned  us,  that 
the  supreme  homage  of  that  moral  nature  which 
Himself  hath  constituted  must  necessarily  be  given 


376  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

to  attributes  of  character  which  differ,  or  even  to 
attributes  which  are  opposite  to  His  own.  It  is 
most  unlikely  that  a  God  of  falsehood  would  so 
mould  and  attemper  the  creatures  of  His  own 
making,  as  that  what  themselves  felt  to  be  the 
superior  principles  of  their  nature  should  depone  to 
the  worth  and  excellence  of  truth,  and  so  to  the 
turpitude  of  the  Being  from  whom  they  had  sprung 
— or  in  like  manner,  that  a  God  of  cruelty  should 
deposit  within  the  hearts  and  the  breasts  of  His 
own  fabrication  a  similar  attestation  on  the  side 
of  benevolence — or  that  a  God  of  injustice  should 
have  done  the  same  by  uprightness  and  honesty. 
In  spite  of  the  aberrations  of  a  watch,  it  is  im- 
possible to  inspect  its  mechanism,  and  especially 
the  presiding  office  of  its  regulator,  without  the 
conviction  that  its  primary  intention  was  for  the 
measurement  of  time — and  that  to  this  object  the 
aim  of  the  artificer  was  supremely  or  rather  solely 
directed.  And  it  is  equally  impossible,  whatever 
the  aberrations  of  actual  humanity  maybe,  to  inspect 
the  moral  nature  of  man,  and  take  notice  more 
especially  of  that  presiding  sense  of  obligation  within 
us  which  attaches  to  our  every  feeling  of  what  we 
ought  to  be  or  ought  to  do — without  the  conviction 
that  this  conscience  was  given  as  a  power  wherewith 
to  control  and  overrule  all  the  inferior  propensities 
of  our  nature,  and  to  secure  for  virtue  that  practical 
ascendancy  which  forms  the  healthy  condition  of 
our  species.  By  reading  then  the  natural  tablet 
of  morality  in  our  own  hearts,  we  read  an  impress 
as  it  were  or  reflection  from  that  original  tablet  of 
all  moral  and  spiritual  excellence,  even  the  cha- 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  377 

racter  of  Him  from  whom  we  have  emanated. 
The  book  of  conscience  may  be  regarded  as  a 
transcript  by  the  hand  of  this  Being  from  that 
primeval  virtue  which  belongs  essentially  and 
eternally  to  Himself — and  whatever  lineament  we 
discern  there,  is  the  evidence  to  us  of  a  corre- 
sponding lineament  in  the  image  of  the  Godhead. 
It  is  thus  that  we  read  the  moral  character  of  God 
in  the  book  of  our  own  consciences.  From  what 
we  find  to  be  the  constitution  of  our  moral  nature, 
we  directly  infer  the  mind  and  disposition  of  Him 
who  framed  it.  It  is  true  that  there  are  certain 
local  or  accidental  modifications,  which  have  caused 
slight  and  occasional  difference  in  the  moral  judg- 
ments of  men.  But  whatever,  apart  and  aloof  from 
these,  has  been  enthroned  by  the  universal  sense 
of  mankind  as  a  virtue,  or  as  that  which  should  have 
a  dwelling-place  on  earth — announces  itself  through 
the  organ  of  conscience  to  have  had  an  eternal  dwell- 
ing-place  in  Heaven — being  seated  there  as  one  of 
the  lovely  or  venerable  characteristics  of  Him  who 
framed  us.  If  truth  and  purity  and  integrity  and 
kindness  be  virtues  in  men,  and  are  recognised  by 
him  as  of  supreme  obligation — -the  very  fact  of  man 
being  so  framed  as  thus  to  recognise  them,  is  to 
us  the  strongest  argument  within  the  compass  of 
our  natural  vision,  for  the  truth  and  righteousness 
and  goodness  and  holiness  of  God. 

12.  When  Ethical  Philosophers  investigate  the 
origin  and  foundation  of  our  moral  ideas — they 
sometimes,  for  the  eliciting  of  principle,  put  ima- 
ginary cases — at  one  time  disjoining,  at  another 
variously  blending  the  elements  of  their  speculation. 


378  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

For  instance  they  make  the  supposition  of  man 
being  so  constituted,  that  with  a  moral  nature 
utterly  the  reverse  of  his  present  one,  his  moral 
judgments  should  be  altogether  opposite  to  those 
which  he  now  passes  on  the  virtues  and  vices  of 
the  human  character.  It  is  possible  to  conceive, 
and  alike  possible  to  argue  on  such  a  thing — on  our 
species  being  so  organized  that  what  we  now  honour 
as  righteous  and  incumbent  moralities,  we  should 
then  execrate  as  crimes,  and  what  we  now  feel  to 
be  moral  abominations,  we  should  then  revere  as 
the  best  habits  or  accomplishments  of  humanity. 
The  supposition  however  violent  can  certainly  be 
made,  that  honour  and  generosity  and  truth  should 
be  proscribed  by  a  race  of  beings  so  differently 
cast  and  moulded  from  ourselves  as  to  associate 
blame  or  culpability  with  these  observations  ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  deceit  and  murder  and 
licentiousness  should  be  canonized  as  so  many 
virtues  in  the  hearts  of  a  thus  regenerated  species. 
We  are  all  aware  of  the  question  whether  virtue 
have  a  substantive  and  independent  character  of 
its  own,  or  is  a  mere  thing  of  arbitrary  will  and 
appointment  on  the  part  of  Him  who  framed  us — 
and  it  is  in  the  management  of  this  question,  that 
the  hypothesis  which  we  now  advert  to  has  some- 
times been  put.  Now  of  whatever  avail  it  may 
be  for  determining  an  abstract  question  about  the 
nature  of  virtue,  it  at  least  supplies  us  with  an 
obvious  argument  for  determining  the  moral  cha- 
racter of  God.  Let  the  imagination  be  formed  of 
a  superior  being,  the  creator  of  a  planet  which 
he  peopled  with  creatures  of  his  own  making — 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  379 

and  the  whole  mechanism  of  whose  moral  judgments 
was  the  reverse  of  ours — insomuch  that  they  gave 
obeisance  not  of  their  lower  but  of  their  higher 
faculties,  nay  of  conscience  the  highest  of  all,  to 
what  in  our  estimation  are  the  worst  atrocities  of 
human  guilt.  Let  but  the  vices  of  our  world  be 
deified  into  virtues  there — and  what  should  be  the 
inference  in  regard  to  the  character  of  him  who 
was  the  maker  of  such  a  world,  and  of  such  a 
world's  family  ?  From  a  law  written  in  the  heart 
so  different  from  our  own,  should  we  not  infer  a 
lawgiver  equally  different  from  our  own  ?  Should 
our  existing  decalogue  have  proceeded  from  God, 
it  bespeaks  a  Sovereign  who  is  the  enemy  of  all 
falsehood  and  rapacity  and  violence.  But  another 
decalogue,  the  reverse  of  this  in  all  its  enactments, 
would  have  bespoke  a  sovereign  the  enemy  of 
all  that  we  are  taught  at  present  to  revere  as 
good,  the  friend  and  patron  of  all  that  we  are 
taught  to  abhor  as  evil.  Now  the  argument  is  the 
same,  whether  the  enactments  be  written  on  a 
tablet  of  jurisprudence  or  on  the  tablet  of  our 
moral  nature.  A  law  of  conscience  opposite  to 
the  actual  law  would  have  indicated  an  opposite 
moral  character  in  Him  who  framed  us — just  as 
much  as  would  the  law  of  an  authoritative  code, 
proclaimed  by  revelation  from  Heaven,  if  opposite 
in  all  its  commandments  to  the  law  of  Sinai.  In 
other  words,  had  our  species  from  the  constitution 
given  to  them  rendered  their  moral  acknowledg- 
ments to  vice,  we  should  have  inferred  the  author 
of  such  a  constitution  to  have  been  a  God  of 
wickedness — a   sound    inference   truly — but  not 


380  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

more  sound  than  the  conclusion  we  now  make  of 
what  God  actually  is  from  the  conscience  he  has 
actually  given  to  us — a  conscience  that,  amid  all 
the  obstructions  and  obscurations  of  the  inferior 
faculties  in  a  nature  which  has  gone  into  unhinge- 
ment, speaks  loudly  for  the  obligations  and  against 
the  transgressions  of  moral  rectitude — and  there- 
fore for  a  God  who,  amid  the  anarchy  of  the  lower 
elements  in  this  lower  world,  still  a*sserts  with 
overruling  voice  that  He  loveth  righteousness,  that 
He  hateth  iniquity. 

13.  Let  us  here  take  the  opportunity  of  explain- 
ing a  term  which  occurs  but  rarely  in  any  of  the 
expositions  of  Natural  Theology — we  mean  the 
Holiness  of  the  Godhead.  This  is  sometimes 
conceived  of  merely  as  Virtue  in  its  highest  possi- 
ble state  of  exaltation.  But  this  is  not  just  the 
appropriate  definition  of  it.  It  is  not  Virtue  in  itself 
— but  virtue  in  relation  to  its  opposite.  The  term 
Holiness  suggests  the  idea  not  of  perfect  Virtue — 
but  of  that  peculiar  affection  wherewith  a  Being  of 
perfect  virtue  regards  moral  Evil — and  so  much 
indeed  is  this  the  precise  and  characteristic  import 
of  the  term,  that,  had  there  been  no  evil  either 
actual  or  conceivable  in  the  Universe,  there  could 
have  been  no  Holiness.  There  would  have  been 
perfect  Truth  and  perfect  Righteousness — yet  not 
Holiness — for  this  is  a  word  which  denotes  neither 
any  one  of  the  Virtues  in  particular,  nor  the  assem- 
blage of  them  all  put  together — but  the  recoil  or 
the  repulsion  of  these  towards  the  opposite  vices 
— a  recoil  that  never  could  have  been  felt,  if  Vice 
had  been  so  far  a  nonentity  as  to  be  neither  an 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  381 

object  of  real  existence  nor  an  object  of  thought* 
It  is  thus  that  the  peculiar  quality  of  Holiness, 
instead  of  a  separate  or  additional  attribute  in  God's 
moral  nature,  may  be  regarded  as  a  peculiar  modi- 
fication of  that  nature  which  extends  to  all  its  attri- 
butes— marking  the  strength  of  their  repugnance 
to  their  respective  opposites,  and  by  this  very 
strength  indicating  if  we  may  so  express  it,  that 
force  of  character  which  belongs  to  Him.  For 
such  is  the  Holiness  of  God,  that  He  not  only  doeth 
no  evil— but  evil  cannot  dwell  in  His  presence. 
Such  is  the  Holiness  of  God,  that  He  not  only 
committeth  no  iniquity — but  He  is  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  it  without  abhorrence.  Such  is  the 
Holiness  of  God  that  He  not  only  doth  not  lie- 
but  He  cannot  lie,  so  that  heaven  and  earth  must 
pass  away  ere  any  of  His  words  can  pass  away. 
Holiness  is  not  Virtue — but  virtue  under  a  peculiar 
aspect,  the  aspect  of  its  antipathy  to  Vice — and  in 
effect  of  which,  it  so  resolutely  shrinks  from  all 
contact  and  contamination  of  its  opposite.  It  is  not 
by  a  mere  statement  or  description  of  any  of  the 
virtues  in  God  that  the  impression  of  His  holiness 
is  given.  These  virtues  must  be  viewed  in  relation 
to  moral  Evil — and  by  their  Holiness  we  understand 
the  moral  impossibility  of  their  fellowship  there- 
with. It  is  a  term  expressive  of  strict  and  guard- 
ed separation— just  as  the  vessels  of  the  temple 
were  called  holy,  because  set  apart  from  all 
common  uses,  and  that  by  a  law  the  violation  of 
which  would  have  been  sacrilege.  And  such  too  is 
the  impression  of  Heaven's  high  sacredness— not  a 
feeling  of  our  sensitive,  but  the  deeply  seated  feel- 


382  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

ing  of  our  moral  and  rational  nature.  Though 
little  owned  by  poetical  religionists,  it  has  an 
undoubted  echo  in  every  conscience,  whose  para- 
mount and  peremptory  voice  within  the  heart  is  felt 
to  proceed  from  a  Being  who  is  intolerant  of  evil 
and  who  resents  its  approach  as  profanation.  It  is 
this  uncompromising  purity  of  God  which  in  the  eye 
of  the  awakened  sinner  makes  Him  so  tremendous 
—so  that  he  views  Him  as  a  God  of  unappeased 
if  not  of  unappeasable  jealousy,  and  feels  checked 
from  advancing  towards  Him  with  the  apprehension 
that  should  He  offer  to  draw  nigh,  fire  would  come 
forth  of  the  sanctuary  to  burn  up  and  to  destroy. 
It  is  at  this  passage  we  conceive  in  Natural  Theo- 
logy, that  it  becomes  the  germ  of  great  and  high 
preparations— for  precisely  on  our  slight  or  our 
lofty  apprehension  of  God  as  a  judge,  of  God  as  a 
righteous  sovereign  and  lawgiver — will  it  depend 
whether  Christianity  shall  be  hailed  as  a  Saviour, 
or  be  neglected  and  turned  from  as  a  thing  of  nought. 
14.  Natural  Theology  is  often  spoken  of  as  a 
useless  thing,  becaus^  of  its  defective  evidence- 
but  on  this  subject  we  should  not  forget  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  ethics  of  the  Science  and  the 
objects  of  the  Science.  There  is  an  obscurity 
which,  in  various  degrees,  may  rest  upon  the  latter ; 
and  yet  that  be  an  obscurity  wherewith  the  former 
is  not  at  all  chargeable.  Let  the  objects  of  Theo- 
logy be  shrouded  as  they  may — that  does  not  hinder 
the  ethics  of  Theology  from  being  promptly  and 
vividly  seen  by  us  in  the  light  of  intuition.  Even 
although  the  very  being  of  a  God  should  require 
an  inferential  process  ere  we  have  ascertained  it 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  383 

— the  duty  we  owe  to  God,  on  the  supposition  of 
his  being  is  clearly  and  immediately  apprehended 
by  the  mind.  This  evidence  for  the  one  is  as 
distinct  from  that  for  the  other,  as  the  evidence  of 
moral  is  distinct  from  that  of  historical  truth.  The 
question,  what  are  the  actually  existent  things 
whether  in  the  spiritual  or  in  the  material  world — is 
toto  ccelo  different  from  the  question  which  presup- 
poses the  existence  of  the  things,  and  simply  confines 
itself  to  the  relations  between  them.  We  have  a 
mathematics  which  determine  the  action  and  reac- 
tion that  take  place  between  our  earth  and  the 
various  bodies  in  the  firmament ;  and  which  mathe- 
matics would  have  been  alike  available  to  the  same 
conclusion — although  there  had  been  no  planets, 
and  none  of  those  facts  which  form  the  materials  of 
our  actual  astronomy.  We  have  a  morals  which 
determine  the  relative  obligations  which  subsist 
between  the  creature  and  the  Creator  to  whom  he 
owes  his  birth  and  preservation ;  and  what  is  purely 
ethical  in  the  principle  can  neither  be  more  illustrat- 
ed nor  more  obscured  by  the  brighter  or  the  fainter 
evidence  for  an  existing  Deity.  The  mathematical 
is  not  more  distinct  from  the  observational  truth  in 
physics,  than  the  moral  is  from  the  observational 
truth  in  theology.  So  that  when  we  hear  of  the 
dimness  of  Nature's  light ;  and  how  imperfectly  it 
is  that  the  things  of  God  can  be  apprehended  by 
man — we  should  distinguish  between  the  things 
which  differ — for,  however  we  may  have  to  grope 
our  way  to  the  substantive  truths  of  theology, 
no  sooner  is  a  God  made  known,  than  the  incum- 
bent gratitude  and  the  incumbent  obedience  are 


384  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

forthwith  recognised  as  the  instant  suggestions  of 
our  moral  nature. 

•  15.  Even  then  when  the  objects  of  theology  lie 
under  their  envelopment  of  deepest  obscuration, 
there  is  a  clear  and  imperative  call  addressed  to  us 
from  the  ethics  of  theology.  And  it  is  obvious 
that  the  call  becomes  louder — the  more  that  this 
obscuration  is  dissipated,  or  the  further  that  we 
proceed  successfully  in  our  inquiries  after  God. 
Neither  for  this  purpose  is  it  at  all  indispensable 
to  form  a  previous  estimate  of  the  strength  or  the 
evidence  of  Natural  Theology.  Practically,  the 
stronger  it  is  and  the  clearer  it  is,  it  will  speak  all 
the  more  imperatively  to  the  obligation  of  our 
respectfully  entertaining  every  proposal  that  wears 
even  but  the  likelihood  of  having  come  to  us  from 
the  upper  sanctuary.  However  profound  the  haze 
may  be  which  rests  on  the  objects  of  theology, 
its  ethics  remain  so  far  distinct  that  the  ethical 
principle  which  we  have  tried  to  unfold  still  keeps 
its  ground — and  there  is  no  state  or  period  of  the 
mind  too  far  back,  as  it  were,  for  being  reached  by 
its  most  righteous  challenge,  that  we  should  stir 
ourselves  up  to  lay  hold  of  God.  There  is  a  duty 
which  we  owe  to  a  certain,  but  there  is  also  a  duty 
which  we  owe  to  a  likely,  nay  even  a  possible 
Deity.  Whenever  the  spirit  of  man  is  visited  by 
even  so  little  as  but  the  thought  of  a  Maker,  it 
is  a  thought  which  should  solemnize,  which  should 
fix,  which  should  engage  him  in  the  prosecution 
of  an  active  search  after  this  unknown  Benefactor, 
and  should  lead  him  to  catch  as  it  were  at  every 
promise  however   faint  of  a  further   intelligence 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.     385 

respecting  His  character  and  ways.  There  was 
a  moral  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  Athenians  to 
listen  to  Paul,  when  he  spoke  to  them  of  the  unknown 
God.  And  it  is  an  obligation  which  extends  from 
the  most  refined  to  the  rudest  of  Nature's  children. 
All  humanity  lies  within  the  circle  of  it.  And  though 
the  light  of  Nature  glimmers  more  feebly  towards 
the  outskirts  of  the  species — yet  even  there,  its 
dimness  is  visible  to  the  last  of  men,  and  should 
reclaim  them  to  seriousness.  There  is  an  incipient 
voice  heard  even  in  the  extreme  parts  of  the  earth, 
and  which  goes  to  the  very  root  and  embryo  of  reli- 
gion. It  is  a  call  upon  man's  attention — not  per- 
haps to  inform  but  to  awaken  him He  obeys  this 

call  who  places  himself  on  the  outlook  for  any 
traces  or  manifestations  of  a  God.  The  missionary 
who  lands  upon  his  shore  will  find  him  the  first  to 
listen  to  his  message — at  least  the  first  to  be  im- 
pressed by  its  aspect  of  honesty  and  sacredness. 

16.  The  principle  which  we  now  labour  to  impress 
might  be  made  to  subserve  the  vindication  of  a 
missionary  enterprise — but  our  most  direct  interest 
in  it  is  founded  on  its  home  application  to  the  most 
unlettered  of  our  own  peasantry.  It  is  of  mighty 
use  that  there  should  be  initial  ground  upon  which 
we  can  obtain  firm  entry  for  our  ministrations  among 
the  ignorant — that  as  the  church  bell  is  the  summons 
upon  their  attendance,  there  should  be  a  moral 
summons  upon  the  attention  of  the  people.  Now 
this  is  the  important  function  of  their  Natural 
Theology  —  the  theology  of  conscience  which 
challenges  supremacy  within  them,  and  gives  the 
impression  of  a  supreme  Judge  and  Ruler   over 

VOL.  II.  R 


386  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

them.  It  is  the  existence  of  this  impression  which 
secures  an  introduction  for  us.  There  is  at  the 
very  least  the  conception  of  a  God — and,  however 
obscure  the  conception  may  be,  there  is  a  felt 
clearness  and  certainty  in  the  principle  that  a  pro- 
fest  message  from  Him,  unless  it  palpably  belies 
itself,  is  not  to  be  disregarded.  The  former  may 
be  obscure  as  belonging  to  the  objects  of  Theology 
— while  the  latter  is  not  so  as  belonging  to  the 
ethics  of  Theology.  This  ethical  principle  in  fact, 
felt  and  recognised  wherever  there  is  a  conscience 
or  a  moral  nature,  is  the  hold  whereby  the  fishers 
of  men  may  reclaim  them  from  the  lowest  depths 
whether  of  ignorance  or  depravity.  It  is  surely 
of  importance  to  know  that  the  process  of  Chris- 
tianization  has  a  clear  outset  in  the  moral  and 
rational  principles  of  our  nature — and  that  there 
is  a  natural  theology  among  the  people  which  may 
serve  as  a  harbinger  for  the  higher  lessons  of  the 
gospel.  It  is  by  this  natural  theology  of  theirs 
that  the  first  steps  of  the  process  are  made  good 

that  a  hearing  is  gained,  and  attention  is  drawn 

to  the  verisimilitudes  of  the  Christian  Revelation. 
It  is  by  the  evidence  of  the  gospel  itself  that  these 
verisimilitudes  brighten  into  verities.  It  is  natural 
theology  which  accomplishes  the  first — it  is  the 
proper  evidence  of  Christianity  which  accomplishes 
the  second  part  of  the  process.  But  mainly  it  is 
the  internal  evidence.  The  great  majority  of  our 
people  have  no  access  to  the  other.  They  are 
strangers  to  all  that  scholarship  and  criticism  and 
historical  investigation,  which  serve  to  illustrate 
the  outward  credentials  of  the  book.     But  they 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.         387 

need  be  no  strangers  to  the  contents  of  the  book 
— and  we  will  not  anticipate  how  it  is  that  they 
discern  the  signatures  of  a  divinity  there — or  how 
from  the  simple  apparatus  of  a  bible  and  a  con- 
science, that  light  is  struck  out  which  guides  the 
peasant  safely  to  Heaven.  It  is  saying  much 
for  the  importance  of  natural  theology  that  it  does 
contribute  to  a  result  so  glorious — nor  let  us  longer 
speak  of  nature's  light  as  if  it  had  gone  into  utter 
extinction — when  in  fact  the  two  great  instrumental 
causes  for  the  Christianity  of  all  our  cottages,  are 
the  light  of  nature  and  the  self-evidencing  power 
of  the  Bible. 

17.  Having  said  thus  much  for  Natural  Theo- 
logy, we  feel  the  less  hesitation  in  admitting  that 
it  does  leave  us  in  difficulties  from  which  itself 
cannot  extricate  us.  But  it  is  well  that  it  makes 
discovery  of  these.  It  gives  us  to  know  our  dis- 
ease— and  therefore  prompts  us  to  cast  about  for 
a  remedy.  It  manifests  the  fearful  dilemma  in 
which  we  are  placed;  and  so  inclines  us  to  hail 
every  symptom  or  promise  of  deliverance  there- 
from. Whatever  be  the  darkness  of  our  spirits 
in  regard  to  God  as  an  object,  there  natively 
belongs  to  us  enough  of  the  ethical  to  feel,  that  we 
have  not  done  what  we  ought  by  this  unknown 
God.  There  is  a  light  of  conscience  by  which 
we  can  apprehend  what  sin  is.  There  is  a 
light  of  consciousness  by  which  we  can  know 
ourselves  to  be  sinners ;  and  thus  it  is  that  every 
man  is  placed  in  a  state  of  recipiency  for  the 
overtures  of  the  Christian  Revelation.  It  is 
enough   for   this,    though   without   entering   very 


388  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

strictly  or  specifically  upon  the  question,  if  he  but 
share  however  generally  in  nature's  perplexities  j 
in  her  undefined  terrors,  and  these  strangely 
blended  with  her  vague  and  uncertain  hopes;  in 
her  unresolved  doubts,  her  longing  yet  fruitless 
aspirations. 

18.  We  have  already  observed  the  difficulty  to 
which  natural  theism  is  put  in  accounting  for  the 
ills  of  life — and  by  availing  ourselves  of  the  un- 
doubted  fact,  that  mainly  they  are  reducible  into 
moral  causes,  we  have  certainly  approximated  at 
least  to  the  right  interpretation  of  them.  The 
most  appalling  of  all  these  in  our  mysterious  world 
is  the  mystery  of  death.  Even  although  it  could 
be  made  out,  that  there  is  here  a  triumphant 
superiority  of  happiness  to  misery — this,  instead  of 
bringing  an  explanation  to  the  difficulty,  would  in 
fact  bring  a  difficulty  to  the  explanation.  Let  the 
few  little  years  of  our  pilgrimage  have  been  as 
bright  and  as  beautiful  as  they  may — still  what 
account  is  to  be  given  of  that  universal  plague, 
wherewith  all  that  ever  breathes  on  the  face  of  our 
earth  hath  been  so  hopelessly  and  incurably  infect- 
ed? Of  what  avail  are  the  smile  and  the  sunshine 
of  our  ephemeral  being,  when  they  only  serve  to 
aggravate  its  closing  horrors  ;  and  to  give  a  more 
revolting  hideousness  to  that  desolation,  by  which 
it  is  so  fearfully  ended  ?  Let  the  picture  of  all 
those  joys  which  gladden  the  family  circle  be  ren- 
dered as  touching  as  it  may — it  is  death,  it  is 
universal  and  unsparing  death,  which  turns  it  all 
to  cruelest  mockery.  Even  though  without  one 
other  ingredient  to  embitter  the  cup  of  life,  this 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.         389 

fatality  alone  were  enough  utterly  to  change  the 
aspect  of  our  world — from  a  pleasing  habitation 
for  the  sons  of  men,  transforming  it  into  the  vast 
sepulchral  abode  of  its  mouldering  generations. 

19.  But  this  is  reasoning  on  a  supposition  the 
most  favourable.  It  is  presuming  that,  apart 
from  death,  all  within  us  and  about  us  is  in  the 
very  heyday  of  happiness.  But  really  it  is  not  so. 
It  is  evident  that  Nature  labours  under  a  sore  dis- 
temper— and  whereof  she  hath  given  palpable 
symptoms,  not  only  in  the  volcano  and  the  earth- 
quake and  the  storm — but  in  that  general  conspi- 
racy of  all  her  elements,  against  which  man  hath 
to  fight  and  to  fatigue  himself  his  whole  life  long — 
that  he. might  force  out  a  subsistence,  and  keep 
footing  through  a  history,  which  is  made  up  of 
little  better  than  to  drudge  and  to  die.  Should 
we  try  to  unriddle  the  mystery,  we  would  state  it 
as  one  of  the  likeliest  solutions — that  she  was  at 
one  time  healthful  and  entire,  but  that  a  universal 
blight  had  come  upon  her,  and  she  hath  now 
become  the  wreck  of  what  she  was — still  lovely  in 
many  of  her  aspects,  though  in  sore  distress — still 
majestic  and  venerable,  though  a  venerable  ruin 
— appearing  as  if  out  of  joint ;  and  giving  token 
by  her  extended  deserts,  and  the  gloom  of  her 
unpeopled  solitudes,  and  her  wintry  frown,  and 
her  many  fears  and  fitful  agitations,  that  some 
mysterious  ailment  hath  befallen  her. 

20.  There  is  we  think  an  utter  derangement 
into  which  nature  has  been  thrown — so  that  all 
her  elements  are  impregnated  with  disease ;  and 
often  the  hurricane,  and  pestilence,  and  sweeping 


390  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

flood,  become  the  ministers  of  desolation.  Even 
mute  and  inanimate  things  are  subject  to  the 
power  of  a  decay — under  which  many  of  them,  and 
these  the  loveliest  in  nature,  do  sicken  and  expire 
— and  so  exemplify  that  death  which  likens  them 
to  those  who  are  immediately  above  themselves 
in  the  scale  of  creation.  The  inferior  animals  too 
are  all  under  the  law  of  mortality — and  not  a  few 
of  them  under  that  law  of  their  sentient  and 
organic  nature  by  which,  in  obedience  to  a  tyrant 
appetite,  they  go  forth  upon  each  other  in  mutual 
fierceness  to  raven  and  to  destroy.  And  with 
man  also,  the  seeds  of  mortality  are  in  his  tainted 
constitution — they  are  born  with  him — and  they 
lie  undeveloped,  and  sleep  in  mysterious  embryo 
among  the  curious  receptacles  of  an  infant  bosom. 
Throughout  all  her  domains,  in  short,  Nature  hath 
taken  on  a  hue  of  sickliness — and  the  very  elements 
are  charged  with  disease — and  even  that  ground 
which  might  have  offered  a  soft  and  flowery  carpet, 
for  the  impress  of  ethereal  footsteps,  hath  gathered 
into  a  rugged  and  intractable  temper — and  more 
especially  man,  has  been  doomed  by  the  very 
nobleness  of  his  endowments,  by  the  greater  reach 
of  his  forebodings  and  the  finer  sensibilities  that 
belong  to  him,  to  a  larger  participation,  to  a  higher 
pre-eminence  in  the  general  distress. 

21.  There  is  one  alleviation,  and  an  alleviation 
felt  even  in  bosoms  where  the  light  of  revelation 
hath  not  entered.  There  is  the  mingling  of  a 
strange  undefinable  hope  with  all  this  helplessness. 
There  is  a  sort  of  vague  undefinable  impression, 
we  think,  upon  all  spirits,  of  some  great  evolution 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  391 

of  the  present  system  under  which  we  live — some 
looking  towards,  as  well  as  longing  after  immor- 
tality— some  mysterious  but  yet  powerful  sense 
within  every  breast,  of  the  present  as  a  state  of 
confinement  and  thraldom,  and  that  yet  a  day  of  light 
and  largeness  and  liberty  is  coming.  We  cannot 
imagine  of  those  who  live  without  the  scope  of 
Christianity,  that  they  have  any  very  precise  or 
perhaps  confident  anticipations  on  the  subject.  But 
certainly  there  is  abroad  even  among  them  a  dim 
and  a  distant  vision  of  better  days,  of  a  brighter 
and  a  blander  period  that  is  now  obscurely  seen  or 
guessed  at  through  the  gloom  by  which  humanity 
is  encompassed — a  kind  of  floating  anticipation, 
suggested  perhaps  by  the  experimental  feeling  that 
there  is  now  the  straitness  of  an  opprest  and 
limited  condition,  and  that  we  are  still  among  the 
toils  and  the  difficulties  and  the  struggles  of  an 
embryo  state  of  existence.  It  is  altogether  worthy 
of  remark,  that,  in  like  manner  as  throughout  the 
various  countries  of  the  world  there  is  the  very 
wide  impression  of  a  primeval  condition  of  virtue 
and  blessedness  from  which  we  have  fallen — so  there 
seems  a  very  wide  expectation  of  the  species  being 
at  length  restored  to  the  honours  of  their  original 
excellence,  and  the  world  being  recovered  to  the 
same  health  and  harmony  and  loveliness  as  before. 
The  vision  of  a  golden  age  at  some  remote  period 
of  antiquity,  is  not  unaccompanied  by  the  vision  of 
a  yet  splendid  and  general  revival  of  all  things. 
Even  apart  from  revelation,  there  floats  before  the 
world's  eye  the  brilliant  perspective  of  this  earth 
being   at   length   covered   with   a   righteous   and 


392  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

regenerated  family.  This  is  a  topic  on  which  even 
philosophy  has  her  fascinating  dreams ;  and  there 
are  philanthropists  in  our  day  who  disown  Chris- 
tianity, yet  are  urged  forward  to  exertion  by  the 
power  and  the  pleasure  of  an  anticipation  so  beau- 
tiful. They  do  not  think  of  death.  They  only 
think  of  the  moral  and  political  glories  of  a  reno- 
vated world,  and  of  these  glories  as  unfading.  It 
is  an  immortality  after  all  that  they  are  picturing. 
While  they  look  on  that  gospel  which  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light  as  a  fable,  still  they  find 
that  the  whole  capacity  of  their  spirits  is  not  filled, 
unless  they  can  regale  them  with  the  prospect  of 
an  immortality  of  their  own.  Nothing  short  of  this 
will  satisfy  them — and  whether  we  look  to  those 
who  speculate  on  the  perfectibility  of  mankind,  or  to 
those  who  think  in  economic  theories  that  they  are 
laying  a  basis  on  which  might  be  reared  the  per- 
manent happiness  of  nations,  we  see  but  man 
spurning  at  the  narrowness  of  his  present  condition, 
and  waiting  in  earnest  expectancy  for  a  nobler 
manifestation. 

22.  Still  death  forms  the  most  grievous  deduc- 
tion from  the  entireness  of  that  world,  which  is  so 
often  appealed  to  as  containing  in  it  ample  evidences 
for  the.  goodness  of  God.  It  is  this  which  stamps 
the  character  of  vanity  of  vanities  on  all  who  are 
subject  to  it.  Through  the  whole  of  life  man 
walketh  in  a  vain  show  and  vexeth  himself  in  vain 
— and  though  it  had  flowed  in  one  clear  and  un- 
troubled current  of  felicity,  how  surely  and  how 
sadly  it  wanes  onward  to  its  close.  It  is  death 
which  puts  impressive  mockery  on  all  the  splendour 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.    393 

and  fulness  of  this  world.  The  grave  absorbs  all, 
annihilates  all — and  as  one  generation  maketh  room 
for  another,  and  the  men  of  the  present  age  are 
borne  oft*  by  the  men  of  the  age  that  is  to  follow, 
we  cannot  but  regard  the  history  of  our  species, 
and  indeed  of  all  the  living  tribes  that  people  the 
surface  of  this  labouring  earth,  we  cannot  but 
regard  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  series  of 
abortions.  There  is  so  much  of  the  promise  of 
immortality  in  the  high  anticipation  and  heyday 
of  youth — there  is  so  much  of  the  seeming  power 
of  immortality  in  the  vigour  of  established  man- 
hood— there  is  even  so  much  of  the  character  of 
endurance  in  the  tenacity  wherewith  age  keeps 
itself  rivetted  to  the  pursuits  and  interests  of  the 
world,  to  its  busy  schemes  and  its  eager  prosecu- 
tions and  its  castles  of  fame  or  accumulated  fortune 
— clinging  as  it  does  to  these  things,  even  on  the 
very  brink  of  the  sepulchre,  and  keeping  a  firmer 
hold  with  the  hand  of  avarice,  the  sooner  that  its 
deeds  and  its  documents  and  its  various  parchments 
of  security  are  to  be  torn  away  from  it — why  the 
whole  looks  so  farcical,  if  we  may  be  allowed  the 
term,  that  well  may  it  be  said  of  life  even  in  its 
happiest  guise,  and  in  midst  of  its  gayest  prosperity, 
that  it  is  altogether  subject  to  vanity. 

23.  But,  as  we  have  already  said,  there  is  with 
all  this  actual  and  undoubted  helplessness,  there  is 
strangely  and  mysteriously  mixed  up  a  kind  of 
vague  aspiration  or  hope  in  the  heart  of  men  after 
some  coming  enlargement.  The  very  thirst  after 
immortal  fame  on  the  part  of  orators  and  philoso- 
phers and  poets  is  an  example  of  it — and  so  are 
r2 


394  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

the  magnificent  sketches  of  a  prouder  and  better 
day  for  our  species  that  float  before  the  eye  of 
our  sanguine  economists — and  so  is  every  effort 
to  shake  off  the  trammels  of  antiquity,  and  to 
speed  if  possible  with  an  innovator's  hand  the 
amelioration  of  our  race — and  so  are  those  lovely 
visions  of  a  world  regenerated  into  benevolence 
and  purity  and  peace  that  certain  uninspired 
prophets  love  to  gaze  upon.  Each  hath  a  millennium 
of  his  own  on  which  he  doats  and  dwells  with 
kindred  imagination ;  and  whether  we  read  of  the 
future  triumph  of  virtue  by  the  march  of  intellect, 
or  are  called  to  look  upon  it  in  the  perspective  of 
planned  and  regulated  villages — it  may  well  be  put 
down  to  the  craving  appetite,  or  even  the  strong 
expectancy  that  there  is  in  human  bosoms,  for 
some  bright  and  beauteous  evolution  in  the  history 
of  human  affairs. 

24.  Take  these  two  elements — the  actual  state 
of  man,  and  yet  the  high  anticipations  that  even 
in  spite  of  death  are  found  to  lighten  and  elevate 
his  bosom — and  we  should  figure  the  world  to  be 
in  a  state  of  big  and  general  distress,  giving 
token  of  some  pregnant  but  yet  undisclosed  mystery 
wherewith  it  is  charged,  and  heaving  throughout 
all  its  borders  with  the  pains  and  the  portents  of 
its  coming  regeneration. 

25.  This  seems  to  be  the  general  aspect  of 
things.  The  world  is  not  at  ease.  The  element 
wherein  it  floats  is  far  from  being  of  a  tranquil 
or  a  rejoicing  character.  It  hath  somehow  got 
out  of  adjustment,  and  is  evidently  off  the  poise  or 
the  balance  of  those  equable  movements  in  which 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  395 

we  should  desire  that  it  persisted  for  ever.  Like  the 
stray  member  of  a  secure  and  blissful  family,  it 
hath  turned  into  a  wayward  comfortless  ill-condi- 
tioned thing,  that  still  teems  however  with  the 
recollection  of  its  high  original,  and  wildly  gleams 
and  gladdens  in  the  hope  of  its  coming  regenera- 
tion. It  hath  all  the  characters  now  of  being  in 
a  transition  state — rand  with  all  those  symptoms  of 
restlessness  about  it  which  brooding  insect  under- 
goes ere  it  passes  into  the  death-like  chrysalis,  and 
comes  forth  again  in  some  gay  and  beauteous 
expansion  on  the  fields  of  our  illumined  atmosphere. 
Meanwhile  it  is  in  sore  labour ;  and  the  tempest's 
sigh,  and  the  meteor's  flash,  and  not  more  the 
elemental  war  than  the  conflict  and  the  agony  that 
are  upon  all  spirits — the  vexing  care,  and  the 
heated  enterprise,  and  the  fierce  contention,  and 
the  battle-cry  both  that  rises  among  the  inferior 
tribes  throughout  the  amplitudes  of  unpeopled 
nature,  and  that  breaks  as  loudly  upon  the  ear 
from  the  shock  of  civilized  men — above  every 
thing  the  death,  the  sweeping  irresistible  death, 
that  makes  such  havoc  among  all  the  ranks  of 
animated  nature  and  carries  off  as  with  a  flood 
its  successive  generations — these  are  the  now 
overhanging  evils  of  a  world  that  is  groping  in 
darkness  for  its  God. 

26.  There  are  certain  topics  in  Natural  Theology 
which  we  would  rather  pass  over  in  this  rapid 
and  cursory  way,  than  bring  them  each  successively 
forward,  in  the  shape  of  a  distinct  and  definite 
argument.  We  conceive  that  injury  is  done  to  a 
cause,  when  the  stress  of  it  is  laid  in  any  great  or 


396  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

ostentatious  degree  on  that  which  is  merely  con- 
jectural. There  has  been  too  much  made  of  what 
may  be  called  the  surmisings  or  the  longings  or  the 
presentiments  of  nature.  For  example  we  should 
hesitate  to  urge  either  nature's  dread  of  annihila- 
tion, or  its  desire  of  posthumous  fame  (that  is  of 
a  species  of  life,  because  of  living  in  the  recollection 
of  yet  unborn  generations)  or  its  towering  wishes 
and  capacities  beyond  all  which  earth  and  time  can 
satisfy — we  should  not  very  anxiously  expound,  or 
very  confidently  insist  on  these  as  reasons  for 
immortality — not  but  they  have  some  force  when 
viewed  in  analogy  with  the  general  fact  that  for 
each  appetency  in  man  whether  mental  or  corporeal, 
there  is  a  definite  object  in  external  nature — so 
that  it  seems  to  exhibit  the  anomaly  of  what  may 
be  called  a  waste  feeling  or  a  waste  faculty  in  our 
constitution,  should  there  be  a  heaving  of  the  soul 
towards  eternity  without  an  actual  eternity  to  meet 
and  to  satisfy  its  aspirations.  Still  we  would 
view  these  things,  not  in  the  light  of  substantial 
proofs,  but  rather  of  slender  presumptions.  They 
are  not  manifestations  of  the  truth — but  to  make 
use  of  a  homely  yet  expressive  term  peculiar  we 
believe  to  Scotland — they  are  but  inklings  of  the 
truth.  Now  we  hold  that  natural  theology  abounds 
in  such  faint  and  distant  notices,  as  may  very  aptly 
be  denominated  inklings.  And  if  we  have  at  all 
succeeded  in  conveying  our  sense  of  the  worth  and 
magnitude  of  a  principle  which  we  have  much 
insisted  on,  they  are  very  far  from  being  destitute 
of  practical  importance.  They  may  not  challenge 
the    belief — and   yet   most    rightfully   may   they 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  397 

challenge  the  attention.  They  are  not  enough  to 
produce  conviction — but  they  should  be  enough  to 
prompt  and  to  stimulate  inquiry.  They  do  not 
unveil  the  objective  truth — but  they  bring  the 
ethical  principle  into  play.  They  do  not  bring 
light  to  the  spirit — but  they  bring  to  the  test  its 
love  for  the  light  or  its  love  for  the  darkness. 
They  do  not  form  the  materials  of  such  a  proof  as 
should  carry  the  assurance  of  the  mind,  but  they 
at  least  form  the  materials  of  such  a  precognition 
as  should  set  it  on  a  busy  and  desirous  search 
after  its  own  immortality ;  and  make  it  hail  the 
arrival  from  whatever  quarter  of  any  offered  mani- 
festations. There  is  not  as  much  light  in  the 
theology  of  nature  as  should  satisfy  and  inform  the 
spirit  of  man — but  certainly  as  much  as  should 
utterly  condemn  the  spirit's  lethargy.  It  cannot 
fetch  down  the  secret  of  heaven's  economy  to  earth 
— but  it  puts  the  earth  into  a  state  of  ripeness  and 
respondency  for  heaven's  revelation. 

27.  Perhaps  the  first  tendency  of  the  youthful 
spirit,  is  to  ascribe  a  sufficiency  and  a  strength  to 
Natural  Theology  which  do  not  belong  to  it.  It 
is  at  this  period  that  the  mere  plausibilities  of  the 
subject  are  most  likely  to  be  sustained  as  proofs — 
and  that  such  agreeable  reasonings  as  those  of 
Addison  in  his  Spectator,  about  the  aspiring  and 
the  indefinite  capacities  of  progress  in  man,  will  be 
held  enough  to  warrant  our  confident  expectation 
of  immortality.  But  after  that  we  have  entered 
on  a  severe  discipline  of  thought,  and  have  ex- 
changed the  imaginative  for  the  experimental  or 
the  historical — we  are  apt  to  discard  the  specula- 


398  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

tions  of  natural  theism  altogether,  and  to  rest  our 
exclusive  as  well  as  firm  belief  on  the  foundation 
of  that  sound  testimony  which  gives  the  force  of 
observational  evidence  to  the  statements  and  revela- 
tions of  the  gospel. 

28.  The  true  apprehension  seems  to  be  that 
Natural  Theology,  however  little  to  be  trusted  as 
an  informer,  yet  as  an  inquirer,  or  rather  as  a 
prompter  to  inquiry,  is  of  inestimable  service.  It 
is  a  high  function  that  she  discharges,  for  though 
not  able  to  satisfy  the  search,  she  impels  to  the 
search.  We  are  apt  to  undervalue,  if  not  to  set 
her  aside  altogether,  when  we  compare  her  obscure 
and  imperfect  notices  with  the  lustre  and  the  ful- 
ness of  revelation.  But  this  is  because  we  over- 
look the  virtue  that  lies  in  the  probabilities  of  a 
subject — a  virtue,  either,  on  the  one  hand,  to  fasten 
the  attention ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  to  condemn 
the  want  of  it.  This  we  hold  to  be  the  precise 
office  of  natural  theology — and  an  office  too,  which 
she  performs,  not  merely  as  the  theology  of  science 
among  those  who  listen  to  her  demonstrations  in  the 
academic  hall;  but  which  she  also  performs  with 
powerful  and  practical  effect,  as  the  theology  of 
conscience,  throughout  all  the  classes  of  our  general 
population.  It  is  this  initial  work  which  makes  her 
so  useful,  we  should  say  so  indispensable,  as  a 
preliminary  to  the  gospel.  Natural  theology  is 
quite  overrated  by  those  who  would  represent  it 
as  the  foundation  of  the  edifice.  It  is  not  that,  but 
rather  the  taper  by  which  we  must  grope  our  way 
to  the  edifice;*  The  stability  of  a  fabric  is  not 
greater  than  the  stability  of  that  upon  which  it  rests ; 


THE   USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  399 

and  it  were  ascribing  a  general  infirmity  to  revela- 
tion, to  set  it  forth,  as  leaning  upon  natural  theism, 
in  the  way  that  a  mathematical  doctrine  leans  upon 
the  axioms  or  first  principles  of  the  science.  Chris- 
tianity rests  on  its  own  proper  evidence ;  and  if, 
instead  of  this,  she  be  made  to  rest  on  an  antece- 
dent natural  religion,  she  becomes  weak  throughout, 
because  weak  radically.  It  is  true  that  in  theology, 
the  natural  goes  before  the  revealed,  even  as  the 
cry  of  weakness  or  distress  goes  before  the  relief  to 
which  it  aspires,  and  which  it  is  prompted  to  seek 
after.  It  goes  before,  not  synthetically  in  the  order 
of  demonstration,  but  historically  in  the  mind  of  the 
inquirer.  It  is  not  that  Natural  Religion  is  the 
premises,  and  Christianity  the  conclusion  ;  but  it  is 
that  Natural  Religion  creates  an  appetite  which  it 
cannot  quell ;  and  he  who  is  urged  thereby,  seeks 
for  a  rest  and  a  satisfaction  which  he  can  only  obtain 
in  the  fulness  of  the  gospel.  Natural  Theology  has 
been  called  the  basis  of  Christianity.  It  would 
accord  better  with  our  own  views  of  the  place 
which  it  occupies,  and  of  the  high  purpose  which  it 
undoubtedly  serves — if  it  were  called  the  basis  of 
Christianization. 

29.  The  most  important  exemplification  of  the 
way  in  which  Natural  Religion  bears  upon  Chris- 
tianity, is  furnished  by  the  question  of  a  sinner's 
acceptance  with  God.  Natural  religion  can  sug- 
gest to  iran  the  apprehension  of  his  guilt;  for 
however  dim  her  objective  view  of  the  Deity,  there 
is  no  such  dimness  in  her  ethical  notion  of  what  is 
due  even  to  an  uncertain  God.  Without  having 
seriously  resolved  the  question,  we  may  stand  con- 


400  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

victed  to  our  own  minds  of  a  hardened  and  habi- 
tual carelessness  to  the  question.  If  our  whole 
lives  long  have  been  spent  in  the  midst  of  created 
things,  without  any  serious  or  sustained  effort  of 
our  spirits  in  quest  of  a  Creator — if,  as  our  con- 
sciences can  tell,  the  whole  drift  and  practical 
earnestness  of  our  thoughts  are  towards  the  gifts, 
with  but  a  rare  and  occasional  anxiety  towards  the 
Giver — if  the  sense  of  Him  touch  but  lightly  on 
our  spirits,  and  we,  by  our  perpetual  lapses  from 
the  sacred  to  the  secular,  prove  that  our  gravita- 
tion is  to  earth,  and  that  in  truth  our  best-loved 
element  is  atheism — if  the  notices  of  a  God,  how- 
ever indistinct,  wherewith  we  are  surrounded,  in- 
stead of  fastening  our  regards  on  this  high  contem- 
plation, do  but  disturb  without  at  all  influencing  the 
general  tenor  of  our  engagements — these  are  things 
of  which  the  light  of  Nature  can  take  cognizance ; 
and  these  are  things  because  of  which,  and  of  their 
felt  unworthiness,  nature  is  visited  by  the  misgivings 
both  of  remorse  and  of  terror.  She  has  data 
enough  on  which  to  found  the  demonstration  and 
the  sense  of  our  own  unworthiness  ;  and  hence  a 
general  feeling  of  insecurity  among  all  spirits,  a 
secret  but  strong  apprehension  that  all  is  not  right 
between  them  and  God. 

30.  And  without  fetching  the  lesson  of  our  guilt 
from  the  depths  and  the  subtleties  of  our  latent  un- 
godliness, it  gleams  forth  obviously  upon  us,  from 
the  palpable  misdoings  of  outward  and  visible  his- 
tory. We  do  not  need  to  dive  among  the  arcana 
of  our  inward  nature  to  be  informed  of  that  moral 
perversity  which  is  so  broadly  announced  by  act 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  401 

and  by  every-day  behaviour.  Not  to  speak  of  the 
frauds  and  profligacies  of  the  worst  in  society,  there 
is  enough  in  the  failures  and  the  infirmities  and  the 
omissions  of  the  best  to  account  for  that  sense  of 
sinfulness  which  in  spite  of  every  disguise  may  be 
detected  in  the  purest  of  bosoms.  The  truth  is,  that 
wherever  a  real  moral  superiority  of  character  is 
found,  there  is  also  a  greater  moral  delicacy  of  con- 
science, and  so  a  quicker  sensibility  to  what  may  be 
deemed  by  many  but  the  slighter  violations  of  recti- 
tude. And  hence  we  should  imagine  that  a  sense  of 
guilt  and  of  deficiency  is  well  nigh  universal  through- 
out our  species.  It  is  a  felt  and  familiar  impression 
every  where — not  the  fruit  of  that  education  which 
prevails  within  the  limits  of  Christendom,  but  an 
instant  suggestion  of  conscience  throughout  all  the 
climes  of  our  habitable  earth.  Such  is  the  experi 
ence  of  missionaries.  They  do  not  need  to  demon- 
strate the  sinfulness  of  the  human  character — for 
even  the  dark  imagery  of  superstition  proves  that 
the  ground  is  thus  far  prepared  for  them.  There 
is  a  certain  misgiving  sense  of  condemnation  in 
every  bosom — a  distrust  grounded  on  the  fear  of 
Heaven's  provoked  enmity — and  the  feeling  of  this 
enmity  still  further  alienates  the  world  from  its 
God.* 


*  There  is  on  this  suhject  a  distinction  between  one  principle 
and  another  in  Natural  Theology,  on  which  there  in  fact  turns 
a  corresponding  distinction  between  one  system  and  another  in 
Christianity.  If  we  hold  the  Supreme  Being  to  be  a  God  of 
indefinite  placability,  then  will  it  be  our  feeling  that  the  barrier  of 
separation  which  sin  hath  interposed  between  God  and  His  crea- 
tures, may  be  easily  surmounted.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
hold  Him  to  be  a  God  of  inflexible  justice,  then  the  barrier  will 
appear  to  be  impassable  j  or,  at  least,  it  will  appear  in  our  eyes  a 


402  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

31.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  mere  sensitive  and 
popular  impression ;  but  in  strict  accordance  with 
the  views  of  a  calm  and  intelligent  jurisprudence. 
It  enters  into  the  very  essence  of  our  conception 
of  a  moral  government,  that  it  must  have  sanctions 
which  could  not  have  place,  were  there  either  to  be 
no  dispensation  of  rewards  and  punishments ;  or 
were  the  penalties,  though  denounced  with  all  the 
parade  and  proclamation  of  law,  to  be  never  exe- 
cuted. It  is  not  the  lesson  of  conscience,  that  God 
would,  under  the  mere  impulse  of  a  parental  fond- 
ness for  the  creatures  whom  He  had  made,  let 
down  the  high  state  and  sovereignty  which  belong 
to  Him  ;  or  that  He  would  forbear  the  infliction  of 
the  penalty,  because  of  any  soft  or  timid  shrinking 
from  the  pain  it  would  give  to  the  objects  of  His 
displeasure.  There  is  nothing  either  in  history  or 
nature,  which  countenances  such  an  imagination  of 
the  Deity,  as  that,  in  the  relentings  of  mere  tender- 
ness,  He  would  stoop  to  any  weak  or  unworthy 


problem    of  difficulty,    how   mercy    can   be   so  dispensed   to   a 
guilty   world   that   the  honours  of"  the    one    attribute    may    be 
preserved,   under  the  exercise   and  manifestation   of  the    other. 
So  that   the  question  between  one  gospel  sect  or  denomination 
and  another,  hangs  upon  an  anterior  question  in  natural  theism. 
If  we  look  on  God    only  as  a  benign  and  affectionate   parent, 
then    we    might    imagine    Him    recalling   His   strayed    children 
by  a  simple  act  of  connivance.     But  if,  instead  of  this,  we  look 
on  God  only  as  a  judge  and  a  moral  governor,  then  might  the  dig- 
nity  of  this   government  seem   to  require  that  they  should   b 
irrecoverable  outcasts  from    a  kingdom   whose   laws  they  hav 
violated.      It  were  altogether  worthy  of  a  revelation  from  Heaven 
to  unriddle  this  perplexity  ;  and  precisely  as  we  are  inclined  t 
cherish  the  sentimental   or   the   severe   and  sacred    view  of   th 
Divinity,  will  either  the  apparatus  of  redemption  be  set  at  nough 
or  will  we  welcome  the  tidings  that  unto  us  a  Saviour  has  been 
born. 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  403 

compromise  with  guilt.  The  actual  sufferings  of 
life  speak  loudly  and  experimentally  against  the 
supposition ;  and  when  one  looks  to  the  disease  and 
the  agony  of  spirit,  and  above  all  the  hideous  and 
unsparing  death,  with  its  painful  struggles  and 
gloomy  forebodings,  which  are  spread  universally 
over  the  face  of  the  earth — we  cannot  but  imagine 
of  the  God  who  presides  over  such  an  economy, 
that  He  is  not  a  being  who  will  falter  from  the 
imposition  of  any  severity,  which  might  serve  the 
objects  of  a  high  administration.  Else  all  stead- 
fastness of  purpose  and  steadfastness  of  principle, 
were  fallen  from.  God  would  stand  forth  to  the 
eye  of  His  own  creatures,  a  spectacle  of  outraged 
dignity.  And  He  of  whom  we  image  that  He  dwells 
in  an  inviolable  sanctuary,  the  august  Monarch  of 
heaven  and  earth — with  a  law  by  subjects  dishon- 
oured, by  the  sovereign  unavenged — would  possess 
but  the  semblance  and  the  mockery  of  a  throne. 

32.  Such  a  conception  is  not  only  a  violence  to 
the  apprehensions  of  nature,  but  is  even  acknow- 
ledged at  times  by  our  academic  theists,  as  a  vio- 
lence to  the  sound  philosophy  of  the  subject.  The 
most  striking  testimony  to  this  effect  is  that  given 
by  Dr.  Adam  Smith,  on  the  first  appearance  of  his 
"  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments ;"  nor  does  it  detract 
from  its  interest  or  its  value,  that  he  afterwards 
suppressed  it,  in  the  subsequent  editions  of  his 
work : — "  All  our  natural  sentiments,"  he  says, 
"prompt  us  to  believe,  that  as  perfect  virtue  is 
supposed  necessarily  to  appear  to  the  Deity  as  it 
does  to  us,  as  for  its  own  sake  and  without  any 
farther  view,  the  natural  and  proper  object  of  love 


404  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

and  reward,  so  must  vice  of  hatred  and  punish, 
ment.  That  the  gods  neither  resent  nor  hurt,  was 
the  general  maxim  of  all  the  different  sects  of  the 
ancient  philosophy ;  and  if  by  resenting  be  under- 
stood that  violent  and  disorderly  perturbation 
which  often  distracts  and  confounds  the  human 
heart;  or  if  by  hurting  be  understood  the  doing 
of  mischief  wantonly,  and  without  regard  to  pro- 
priety or  justice,  such  weakness  is  undoubtedly 
unworthy  of  the  divine  perfection.  But  if  it  be 
meant  that  vice  does  not  appear  to  the  Deity  to 
be  for  its  own  sake  the  object  of  abhorrence  and 
aversion,  and  what,  for  its  own  sake,  it  is  fit  and 
reasonable  should  be  punished,  the  truth  of  this 
maxim  can  by  no  means  be  so  easily  admitted. 
If  we  consult  our  natural  sentiments,  we  are  apt 
to  fear  lest  before  the  holiness  of  God  vice  should 
appear  to  be  more  worthy  of  punishment,  than 
the  weakness  and  imperfection  of  human  virtue 
can  ever  seem  to  be  of  reward.  Man,  when  about 
to  appear  before  a  Being  of  infinite  perfection,  can 
feel  but  little  confidence  in  his  own  merit,  or  in 
the  imperfect  propriety  of  his  own  conduct.  In 
the  presence  of  his  fellow-creatures  he  may  often 
justly  elevate  himself,  and  may  often  have  reason 
to  think  highly  of  his  own  character  and  conduct, 
compared  to  the  still  greater  imperfection  of  theirs. 
But  the  case  is  quite  different,  when  about  to 
appear  before  his  infinite  Creator.  To  such  a 
Being,  he  can  scarcely  imagine,  that  his  littleness 
and  weakness  should  ever  appear  to  be  the  proper 
objects  either  of  esteem  or  of  reward.  But  he 
can  easily  conceive  how  the  numberless  violations 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  405 

of  duty  of  which  he  has  been  guilty,  should  render 
him  the  proper  object  of  aversion  and  punishment ; 
neither  can  he  see  any  reason  why  the  divine  in- 
dignation should  not  be  let  loose,  without  any 
restraint,  upon  so  vile  an  insect  as  he  is  sensible 
that  he  himself  must  appear  to  be.  If  he  would 
still  hope  for  happiness,  he  is  conscious  that  he 
cannot  demand  it  from  the  justice,  but  he  must 
entreat  it  from  the  mercy  of  God.  Repentance, 
sorrow,  humiliation,  contrition  at  the  thought  of 
his  past  misconduct,  are  upon  this  account  the 
sentiments  which  become  him,  and  seem  to  be  the 
only  means  which  he  has  left  for  appeasing  that 
wrath  which  he  knows  he  has  justly  provoked. 
He  even  distrusts  the  efficacy  of  all  these,  and 
naturally  fears  lest  the  wisdom  of  God  should  not, 
like  the  weakness  of  man,  be  prevailed  upon  to 
spare  the  crime  by  the  most  importunate  lamenta- 
tions of  the  criminal.  Some  other  intercession, 
some  other  sacrifice,  some  other  atonement,  he 
imagines  must  be  made  for  him,  beyond  what  he 
himself  is  capable  of  making,  before  the  purity  of 
the  divine  justice  can  be  reconciled  to  his  mani- 
fold offences.  The  doctrines  of  revelation  coin- 
cide in  every  respect  with  these  original  anticipa- 
tions of  nature  ;  and  as  they  teach  us  how  little 
we  can  depend  upon  the  imperfection  of  our  own 
virtue,  so  they  show  us  at  the  same  time  that  the 
most  powerful  intercession  has  been  made,  and 
that  the  most  dreadful  atonement  has  been  paid, 
for  our  manifold  transgressions  and  iniquities." 

33.  This  interesting  passage  seems  to  have  been 
written  by  its  author,  under  a  true  apprehension 


406  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

of  that  dilemma  in  which  the  world  is  involved. 
He  admits  a  moral  government  on  the  part  of  God. 
He  admits  a  universal  delinquency  on  the  part  of 
man.  And  his  feeling  is,  that  the  government 
would  be  nullified  by  a  mere  act  of  indemnity, 
which  rendered  no  acknowledgment  to  the  justice 
which  had  been  violated,  or  to  the  authority  of 
that  law  which  had  been  trampled  on.  In  these 
circumstances,  he  casts  about  as  it  were  for  an 
adjustment;  and  puts  forth  a  conjectural  specu- 
lation ;  and  guesses  what  the  provision  should  be, 
which,  under  a  new  economy,  might  be  adopted 
for  repairing  a  defect,  that  is  evidently  beyond  all 
the  resources  of  natural  theism ;  and  proposes  the 
very  expedient  of  our  professed  revelation,  for  the 
resolving  of  a  difficulty  which  had  been  else  im- 
practicable. We  deem  it  a  melancholy  fact,  that 
this  noble  testimony  to  the  need  of  a  gospel  should 
have  disappeared  in  the  posterior  editions  of  his 
work — revised  and  corrected  as  they  were  by  his 
own  hand.  It  is  not  for  men  to  sit  in  the  chair  of 
judgment;  and  never  should  they  feel  a  greater 
awe  or  tenderness  upon  their  spirits,  than  when 
called  to  witness  or  to  pronounce  upon  the  aber- 
rations of  departed  genius.  Yet  when  one  com- 
pares the  passage  he  could  at  one  time  have 
written,  with  the  Memoir,  that,  after  an  interval 
of  many  years  he  gave  to  the  world,  of  David 
Hume,  that  ablest  champion  of  the  infidel  cause — . 
one  fears  lest,  under  the  contagion  of  a  near  and 
withering  intimacy  with  him,  his  spirit  may  have 
imbibed  of  the  kindred  poison ;  and  he  at  length 
have  become  ashamed  of  the  homage  that  he  once 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  407 

had  rendered   to   the   worth   and   importance   of 
Christianity. 

34.  This,  notwithstanding,  remains  one  of  the 
finest  examples  of  the  way  in  which  the  Natural 
bears  upon  the  Christian  theology ;  and  of  the 
outgoings,  by  which  the  one  conducts  to  a  landing- 
place  in  the  other.  We  hold  that  there  are  many 
such  outgoings;  that  at  the  uttermost  margin  of 
the  former  there  is  a  felt  want,  and  that,  in  accu- 
rate counterpart  to  this,  the  latter  has  something 
to  offer  in  precise  and  perfect  adaptation  thereto. 
Now  the  great  error  of  our  academic  theism,  aa 
commonly  treated,  is,  that  it  expresses  no  want ; 
that  it  reposes  in  its  -own  fancied  sufficiency ;  and 
that  all  its  landing-places  are  within  itself,  and 
along  the  uttermost  limits  of  its  own  territory.  It 
is  no  reproach  against  our  philosophical  moralists, 
that  they  have  not  stepped  beyond  the  threshold 
of  that  peculium,  which  is  strictly  and  appropri- 
ately theirs;  or  not  made  incursion  into  another 
department  than  their  own.  The  legitimate  com- 
plaint is,  that,  on  taking  leave  of  their  disciples, 
they  warn  them  not  of  their  being  only  yet  at  the 
outset  or  in  the  prosecution  of  a  journey,  instead 
of  having  reached  the  termination  of  it.  They  in 
fact  take  leave  of  them  in  the  middle  of  an  unpro- 
tected highway,  when  they  should  have  reared  a 
finger-post  of  direction  to  the  places  which  lie 
beyond.  The  paragraph  which  we  have  now  ex- 
tracted, was  just  such  a  finger-post — though  taken 
down,  we  deeply  regret  to  say,  by  the  very  hand 
that  had  erected  it.  Our  veneration  for  his  name 
must  not  restrain  the  observation,  that,  by  this,  he 


408  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

undid  the  best  service  which  a  professor  of  moral 
science  can  render  to  humanity.  Along  the  con- 
fines of  its  domain,  there  should  be  raised,  in 
every  quarter,  the  floating  signals  of  distress ; 
that  its  scholars,  instead  of  being  lulled  into  the 
imagination  that  now  they  may  repose  as  in  so 
many  secure  and  splendid  dwelling  places,  should 
be  taught  to  regard  them  only  as  towers  of  obser- 
vation— whence  they  have  to  look  for  their  ulterior 
guidance  and  their  ulterior  supplies,  to  the  region 
of  a  conterminous  theology. 

35.  There  is  a  difficulty  here  in  the  theism  of 
nature,  within  the  whole  compass  of  which  no 
solution  for  it  can  be  found.  It  will  at  least 
afford  a  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  the  one 
bears  upon  the  other,  if  we  state  the  method  of 
escape  from  this  difficulty  that  has  been  provided 
in  the  theism  of  Christianity.  The  great  moral 
problem  which  under  the  former  waits  to  be  re- 
solved, is  to  find  acceptance  in  the  mercy  of  God, 
for  those  who  have  braved  His  justice,  and  done 
despite  to  the  authority  of  His  law ;  and  that, 
without  any  compromise  of  truth  or  dignity.  By 
the  offered  solution  of  the  New  Testament,  a 
channel  has  been  opened  up,  through  a  high  me- 
diatorship  between  God  and  man,  for  the  descent 
of  a  grace  and  a  mercy  the  most  exuberant  on  a 
guilty  world;  and  through  it,  the  overtures  of  re- 
conciliation are  extended  unto  all ;  and  a  sceptre 
of  forgiveness,  but  of  forgiveness  consecrated  by 
the  blood  of  a  great  atonement,  has  been  stretched 
forth,  even  to  the  most  polluted  and  worthless 
outcasts  of  the  human  family ;  and  thus  the  good- 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  409 

ness  of  the  Divinity  obtained  its  fullest  vindication, 
yet  not  a  goodness  at  the  expense  of  justice — for 
the  affront  done  to  an  outraged  law,  has  been 
amply  repaired  by  the  homage  to  its  authority  of 
an  illustrious  Sufferer,  who  took  upon  himself  the 
burden  of  all  those  penalties  which  we  should  have 
borne;  and,  in  the  spectacle  of  whose  deep  and 
mysterious  sacrifice,  God's  hatred  of  moral  evil 
stands  forth  in  most  impressive  demonstration.  So 
that,  instead  of  a  conflict  or  a  concussion  between 
these  two  essential  attributes  of  His  nature,  a  way 
has  been  found,  by  which  each  is  enhanced  to  the 
uttermost,  and  a  flood  of  most  copious  and  con- 
vincing illustration  has  been  poured  upon  them 
both. 

36.  This  specimen  will  best  illustrate  of  moral 
philosophy,  even  in  its  most  finished  state,  that  it  is 
not  what  may  be  called  a  terminating  science.  It 
is  at  best  but  a  science  in  transitu;  and  its  lessons 
are  those  of  a  preparatory  school.  It  contains 
but  the  rudiments  of  a  nobler  acquirement ;  and  he 
discharges  best  the  functions  of  a  teacher,  not  who 
satiates,  but  who  excites  the  appetite,  and  then 
leaves  it  wholly  unappeased.  This  arises  from 
the  real  state  and  bearing  of  the  science,  as  being 
a  science  not  so  much  of  doctrines  as  of  desiderata. 
At  most,  it  leaves  its  scholars  in  a  sort  of  twilight 
obscurity.  And,  if  a  just  account  is  rendered  of 
the  subject,  there  will  unavoidably  be  the  feeling, 
that,  instead  of  having  reached  a  secure  landing- 
place,  we  have  broken  off,  as  in  the  middle  of  an 
unfinished  demonstration. 

37.  That  indeed  is  a  most  interesting  adjustment 
VOL.  21.  s 


410  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

between  Moral  Philosophy  and  the  Christian  Theo- 
logy, which  is  represented  to  us  by  the  unresolved 
difficulties  of  the  one  science,  and  the  reduction 
which  is  made  of  these  difficulties  in  the  other. 
We  have  far  the  most  important  example  of  this 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement — that  sublime 
mystery,  by  which  the  attributes  of  the  Divinity 
have  all  been  harmonized ;  and  the  most  liberal 
outlet  has  been  provided  for  mercy  to  the  offender, 
while  still  the  truth  and  justice  of  the  Lawgiver 
have  been  vindicated,  and  all  the  securities  of  His 
moral  government  are  upholden.  By  the  disloyalty 
of  our  race,  the  principles  of  Heaven's  jurispru- 
dence are  brought  to  a  test  of  utmost  delicacy ;  for 
there  seems  to  be  no  other  alternative,  than  that 
man  should  perish  in  overwhelming  vengeance,  or 
that  God  should  become  a  degraded  sovereign. 
It  nullifies  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  if 
all  force  and  authority  be  taken  from  its  sanctions  ; 
and  it  is  a  problem  which  even  "  angels  desired  to 
look  into,"  how  the  breach  could  be  healed,  which 
had  been  made  by  this  world's  rebellion,  and  yet 
the  honour  of  heaven's  high  Sovereign  be  untar- 
nished by  the  compromise.  The  one  science  lands 
us  in  the  difficulty ;  and  by  the  other  alone  it  is 
that  we  are  extricated.  The  one  presents  us  with 
the  case  ;  but,  for  the  solution  of  it,  we  must  recur 
to  a  higher  calculus,  to  an  instrument  of  more 
powerful  discovery  and  of  fuller  revelation.  The 
one  starts  a  question  which  itself  cannot  untie ; 
and  the  other  furnishes  the  satisfactory  response  to 
it.  The  desideratum  of  the  former  meets  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  latter ;  and  it  is  this  frequent 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.     411 

adjustment,  as  of  a  mould  to 'its  counterpart  die; 
it  is  this  close  and  manifold  adaptation  between 
the  wants  of  nature  and  the  overtures  of  a  pro- 
fessed revelation ;  it  is  this  fitting  of  the  supernal 
application  to  the  terrestrial  subject  upon  which  it 
is  laid ;  it  is  the  way,  more  especially,  in  which 
the  disruption  between  heaven  and  earth  has  been 
restored,  and  the  frightful  chasm  that  sin  had  made 
on  the  condition  and  prospects  of  our  species  is 
wholly  repaired  to  all  who  will  through  the  com- 
pleteness of  an  offered  Saviour ;  it  is  this  mingled 
harmony  of  the  greater  and  lesser  lights,  which 
gives  evidence  that  both  have  been  kindled  by  the 
same  hand,  and  that  it  is  He  who  put  the  candle 
which  glimmers  so  feebly  into  my  heart,  it  is  He 
also  who  poured  the  noonday  effulgence  of  Chris- 
tianity around  me. 

(37.)  It  were  foreign  to  our  present  subject  to 
attempt  an  exposition,  in  however  brief  and  rapid 
a  sketch,  of  the  credentials  of  Christianity.  We 
only  remark,  that,  amid  the  lustre  and  variety  of 
its  proofs,  there  is  one  strikingly  analogous,  and 
indeed  identical  in  principle  with  one  of  the  main 
arguments  in  Natural  Theology.  If  in  the  system 
of  external  nature  we  can  recognise  the  evidence 
of  God  being  its  author,  in  the  adaptations  where- 
with it  teems  to  the  Moral  and  Intellectual  Con- 
stitution of  Man — there  is  room  and  opportunity 
for  this  very  evidence  in  the  book  of  an  external 
revelation.  What  appears  in  the  construction  of 
a  world  might  be  made  to  appear  as  manifestly  in 
the  construction  of  a  volume,  whose  objective 
truths    may   present   as   obvious   and    skilful    an 


412  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

accommodation  to  our  mental  economy,  as  ao  the 
objective  things  of  a  created  universe.  And  it  is 
not  the  less  favourable,  for  an  indication  of  its 
divine  original,  that  whereas  Nature,  as  being  the 
original  system,  abounds  with  those  fitnesses  which 
harmonize  with  the  mental  constitution  in  a  state 
of  health — Christianity,  as  being  a  restorative 
system,  abounds  in  fitnesses  to  the  same  constitu- 
tion in  a  state  of  disease.  We  are  not  sure  but 
that  in  the  latter,  from  its  very  design,  we  shall 
meet  with  still  more  delicate  and  decisive  tests  of 
a  designer,  than  have  yet  been  noticed  in  the  for- 
mer ;  and  certain  it  is,  that  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness and  even  power  of  a  moral  architect,  may  be 
as  strikingly  evinced  in  the  reparation,  as  in  the 
primary  establishment  of  a  Moral  Nature. 

38.  Our  conclusion  on  the  whole  is  that  no 
alleged  defect  of  evidence  in  Natural  Theology  can 
extinguish  the  use  of  it — a  use  which  might  still 
remain,  under  every  conceivable  degree  whether 
of  dimness  or  of  distinctness  in  its  views.  Even 
the  faint  and  distant  probabilities  of  the  subject, 
may  still  lay  upon  us  the  duty  of  careful  and 
strenuous  inquisition;  and  that,  long  anterior  to 
our  full  acquaintance  with  the  certainties  of  the 
subject.  The  verisimilitudes  of  the  question  are 
the  signal  posts,  by  following  the  intimations  of 
which,  we  are  at  length  conducted  to  the  verities 
of  the  question.  Although  Natural  Theology, 
therefore,  should  fail  to  illuminate,  yet,  by  a  moral 
force  upon  the  attention,  it  may  fully  retain  the 
power  to  impel.  Even  if  it  should  have  but  some 
evidence,  however  slender,  this  should  put  us  at 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  413 

the  very  least  into  the  attitude  of  inquirers ;  and 
the  larger  the  evidence,  the  more  earnest  and 
vigilant  ought  the  inquiry  to  be.  Thus  a  great 
object  is  practically  fulfilled  by  Natural  Theology. 
It  gives  us  to  conceive,  or  to  conjecture,  or  to 
know  so  much  of  God,  that,  if  there  be  a  pro- 
fessed message  with  the  likely  signatures  upon  it  of 
having  proceeded  from  Him — though  not  our  duty 
all  at  once  to  surrender,  it  is  at  least  our  bounden 
duty  to  investigate.  It  may  not  yet  be  entitled  to 
a  place  in  our  creed ;  but  it  is  at  least  entitled  to  a 
place  in  the  threshold  of  the  understanding — where 
it  may  wait  the  full  and  fair  examination  of  its 
credentials.  It  may  not  be  easy  to  measure  the 
intensity  of  Nature's  light ;  but  enough  if  it  be  a 
light  that,  had  we  obeyed  its  intimations,  would 
have  guided  us  onwards  to  larger  manifestations 
of  the  Deity.  If  Natural  Theology  but  serve  thus 
to  fix  and  direct  our  inquiries,  it  may  fulfil  a  most 
important  part  as  the  precursor  of  revelation.  It 
may  not  be  itself  the  temple  ;  but  it  does  much  by 
leading  the  way  to  it.  Even  at  the  outset  period 
of  our  thickest  ignorance,  there  is  a  voice  which 
calls  upon  us  to  go  forth  in  quest  of  God.  And 
in  proportion  as  we  advance  does  the  voice  become 
more  urgent  and  audible,  in  calling  us  onward  to 
further  manifestations.  It  says  much  for  Natural 
Theology,  that  it  begins  at  the  commencement, 
and  carries  us  forward  a  part  of  this  way ;  and  it 
has  indeed  discharged  a  most  important  function, 
if,  at  the  point  where  its  guesses  or  its  discoveries 
terminate,  it  leaves  us  with  as  much  light  as  should 
make  us  all  awake  to  the  further  notices  of  a  God, 
s  2 


414  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

or  as  shall  leave  our  heedlessness  wholly  inexcus- 
able. 

39.  There  is  a  confused  imagination  with  many, 
that  every  new  accession,  whether  of  evidence  or 
of  doctrine,  made  to  the  Natural,  tends  in  so  far 
to  reduce  the  claims  or  to  depreciate  the  import- 
ance of  the  Christian  Theology.  The  apprehen- 
sion is,  that,  as  the  latter  was  designed  to  supple- 
ment the  insufficiency  of  the  former, — then,  the 
more  that  the  arguments  of  Natural  Theology  are 
strengthened,  or  its  truths  are  multiplied,  the  more 
are  the  lessons  of  the  Christian  Theology  unneeded 
and  uncalled  for.  It  is  thus  that  the  discoveries 
of  reason  are  held  as  superseding,  or  as  casting  a 
shade  of  insignificance,  and  even  of  discredit,  over 
the  discoveries  of  revelation.  There  is  a  certain 
dread  or  jealousy,  with  some  humble  Christians, 
of  all  that  incense  which  is  offered  at  the  shrine 
of  the  Divinity  by  human  science — whose  daring 
incursion  on  the  field  of  theology,  it  is  thought, 
will,  in  very  proportion  to  the  brilliancy  of  its 
success,  administer  both  to  the  proud  indepen- 
dence of  the  infidel,  and  to  the  pious  alarm  of  the 
believer. 

40.  But,  to  mitigate  this  disquietude,  it  should 
be  recollected,  in  the  first  place,  that,  if  Christi- 
anity have  real  and  independent  evidence  of  being 
a  message  from  God,  it  will  be  all  the  more  humbly 
and  respectfully  deferred  to,  should  a  previous 
natural  theology  have  assured  us  of  His  existence, 
and  thrown  the  radiance  of  a  clear  and  satisfying 
demonstration  over  the  perfections  of  His  character. 
However  plausible  its  credentials  may  be,  we  should 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.     415 

feel  no  great  interest  in  its  statements  or  its  over- 
tures, if  we  doubted  the  reality  of  that  Being  from 
whom  it  professes  to  have  come  ;  and  it  is  precisely 
in  as  far  as  we  are  preoccupied  with  the  conviction 
of  a  throne  in  heaven,  and  of  a  God  sitting  upon 
that  throne,  that  we  should  receive  what  bore  the 
signatures  of  an  embassy  from  Him  with  awful 
reverence. 

4 1 .  But  there  is  another  consideration  still  more 
decisive  of  the  place  and  importance  of  Christi- 
anity, notwithstanding  every  possible  achievement 
by  the  light  of  nature.  There  are  many  discoveries 
which,  so  far  from  alleviating,  serve  but  to  enhance 
the  difficulties  of  the  question.  For  example, 
though  science  has  made  known  to  us  the  magni- 
tude of  the  universe,  it  has  not  thereby  advanced 
one  footstep  towards  the  secret  of  God's  moral 
administration ;  but  has,  in  fact,  receded  to  a 
greater  distance,  from  this  now  more  hopeless, 
because  now  more  complex  and  unmanageable 
problem  than  before.  To  multiply  the  data  of  a 
question,  is  not  always  the  way  to  facilitate  its 
solution;  but  often  the  way,  rather,  to  make  it 
more  inextricable.  And  this  is  precisely  the  effect 
of  all  the  discoveries  that  can  be  made  by  Natural 
Theology,  on  that  problem  which  it  is  the  special 
office  of  Christianity  to  resolve.  With  every  new 
argument  by  which  philosophy  enhances  the  good- 
ness and  greatness  of  the  Supreme  Being,  does  it 
deepen  still  more  the  guilt  and  ingratitude  of  those 
who  have  revolted  against  Him.  The  more  em- 
phatically it  can  demonstrate  the  care  and  benevo- 
lence of  God— the  more  emphatically,  along  with 


416  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

this,  does  it  demonstrate  the  worthlessness  of  man. 
The  same  light  which  irradiates  the  perfections  of 
the  divine  nature,  irradiates,  with  more  fearful 
manifestation  than  ever,  the  moral  disease  and 
depravation  into  which  humanity  has  fallen.  Had 
natural  theology  been  altogether  extinct,  and  there 
had  been  no  sense  of  a  law  or  lawgiver  among 
men,  we  should  have  been  unconscious  of  any 
difficulty  to  be  redressed,  of  any  dilemma  from 
which  we  needed  extrication.  But  the  theology 
of  nature  and  conscience  tells  us  of  a  law ;  and  in 
proportion  as  it  multiplies  the  claims  of  the  Law- 
giver in  heaven,  does  it  aggravate  the  criminality 
of  His  subjects  upon  earth.  With  the  rebellious 
phenomenon  of  a  depraved  species  before  our 
eyes,  every  new  discovery  of  God  but  deepens 
the  enigma,  of  man's  condition  in  time,  and  of  his 
prospects  in  eternity ;  and  so  makes  the  louder 
call  fur  that  remedial  system,  which  it  is  the  very 
purpose  of  Christianity  to  introduce  into  the  world. 
42.  We  hold  that  the  theology  of  nature  sheds 
powerful  light  on  the  being  of  a  God ;  and  that,  even 
from  its  unaided  demonstrations,  we  can  reach  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  probability,  both  for  His  moral 
and  natural  attributes.  But  when  it  undertakes  the 
question  between  God  and  man,  this  is  what  it  finds 
to  be  impracticable.  It  is  here  where  the  main  help- 
lessness of  nature  lies.  It  is  baffled  in  all  its 
attempts  to  decipher  the  state  and  the  prospects  of 
man,  viewed  in  the  relation  of  an  offending  subject 
to  an  offended  sovereign.  In  a  word,  its  chief  ob- 
scurity, and  which  it  is  wholly  unable  to  disperse,  is 
that  which  rests  on  the  hopes  and  the  destiny  of  our 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.  417 

species.  There  is  in  it  enough  of  manifestation 
to  awaken  the  fears  of  guilt,  but  not  enough  again 
to  appease  them.  It  emits,  and  audibly  emits,  a 
note  of  terror;  but  in  vain  do  we  listen  for  one 
authentic  word  of  comfort  from  any  of  its  oracles. 
It  is  able  to  see  the  danger,  but  not  the  deliverance. 
It  can  excite  the  forebodings  of  the  human  spirit, 
but  cannot  quell  them — knowing  just  enough  to 
stir  the  perplexity,  but  not  enough  to  set  the  per- 
plexity at  rest.  It  can  state  the  difficulty,  but 
cannot  unriddle  the  difficulty — having  just  as  much 
knowledge  as  to  enunciate  the  problem,  but  not 
so  much  as  might  lead  to  the  solution  of  the  pro- 
blem. There  must  be  a  measure  of  light,  we 
do  allow  ;  but,  like  the  lurid  gleam  of  a  volcano, 
it  is  not  a  light  which  guides,  but  which  bewilders 
and  terrifies.  It  prompts  the  question,  but  cannot 
frame  or  furnish  the  reply.  Natural  theology  may 
see  as  much  as  shall  draw  forth  the  anxious  interro- 
gation, "  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  The 
answer  to  this  comes  from  a  higher  theology. 

43.  These  are  the  grounds  on  which  we  would 
affirm  the  insufficiency  of  that  academic  theism, 
which  is  sometimes  set  forth  in  such  an  aspect  of 
completeness  and  certainty,  as  might  seem  to  leave 
a  revelation  or  a  gospel  wholly  uncalled  for.  Many 
there  are  who  would  gloss  over  the  difficulties 
of  the  question ;  and  who,  in  the  midst  of  all  that 
undoubted  outrage  which  has  been  inflicted  by 
sinful  creatures  on  the  truth  and  the  holiness  and 
the  justice  of  God,  would,  by  merging  all  the 
attributes  of  the  Divinity  into  a  placid  and  undis- 
tinguishing   tenderness,   still   keep   their   resolute 


418  ON  THE  DEFECTS  AND 

hold  of  heaven,  as  at  least  the  splendid  imagina- 
tion, by  which  to  irradiate  the  destinies  of  our 
species.  It  is  thus  that  an  airy  unsupported 
romance  has  been  held  forth  as  the  vehicle,  on 
which  to  embark  all  the  hopes  and  the  hazards  of 
eternity.  We  would  not  disguise  the  meagreness 
of  such  a  system.  We  would  not  deliver  the  lessons 
of  natural  theology,  without  telling  at  the  same 
time  of  its  limits.  We  abjure  the  cruelty  of  that 
sentimentalism,  which,  to  hush  the  alarms  of  guilty 
man,  would  rob  the  Deity  of  his  perfections,  and 
stamp  a  degrading  mockery  upon  His  law.  When 
expounding  the  arguments  of  natural  theology, 
along  with  the  doctrines  which  it  dimly  shadows 
forth,  we  must  sneak  of  the  difficulties  which  itself 
suggests  but  which  it  cannot  dispose  of;  we  must 
make  mention  of  the  obscurities  into  which  it  runs, 
but  which  it  is  unable  to  dissipate — of  its  unre- 
solved doubts — of  the  mysteries  through  which  it 
vainly  tries  to  grope  its  uncertain  way — of  its 
weary  and  fruitless  efforts — of  its  unutterable  long- 
ings. And  should,  on  the  one  hand,  the  specula- 
tions of  human  ingenuity,  and,  on  the  other,  the 
certainties  of  a  well  accredited  revelation,  come 
forth  to  illuminate  this  scene  of  darkness — we 
must  not  so  idolize  the  light  or  the  sufficiency  of 
nature,  as  to  turn  from  the  firmament's  meridian 
blaze,  that  we  might  witness  and  admire  the  tiny 
lustre  of  a  glow-worm. 

44.  The  two  positions  are  perfectly  reconcilable 
—first,  of  the  insufficiency  of  natural  religion ;  and 
secondly,  the  great  actual  importance  of  it.  It  is 
the  wise  and  profound  saying  of  D'Alembert,  that 


THE  USES  OF  NATURAL  THEOLOGY.    419 

"  man  has  too  little  sagacity  to  resolve  an  infinity 
of  questions,  which  he  has  yet  sagacity  enough  to 
make."      Now    this   marks    the  degree  in  which 
Natural  Theology  is  sagacious — being  able,  from  its 
own  resources,  to  construct  a  number  of  cases, 
which  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  able  to  reduce. 
These  must  be  handed  up  for  solution  to  a  higher 
calculus ;  and  thus  it  is,  that  the  theology  of  nature 
and  of  the  schools,  the  theology  of  the  ethical  class — . 
though  most  unsatisfactory,  when  treated  as  a  ter- 
minating science — is  most  important,  and  the  germ 
of  developments  at  once  precious  and  delightful, 
when  treated  as  a  rudimental  one.    It  is  a  science, 
not  so  much  of  dicta  as  of  desiderata ;  and,  from 
the  way  in  which  these  are  met  by  the  counterpart 
doctrines  of  the  gospel,  the  light  of  a  powerful  and 
most  pleasing  evidence  is  struck  out  by  the  compa- 
rison between  them.    It  is  that  species  of  evidence 
which  arises  from  the  adaptation  of  a  mould  to  its 
counterpart  form  ;  for  there  is  precisely  this  sort  of 
fitting,  in  the  adjustment  which  obtains  between  the 
questions  of  the  natural  and  the  responses  of  the 
supernatural  theology.      For  the  problem   which 
natural  theology  cannot  resolve,  the  precise  diffi- 
culty which  it  is  wholly  unable  to  meet  or  to  over- 
come, is  the  restoration  of  sinners  to  acceptance 
and  favour  with  a  God  of  justice.      All  the  re- 
sources and   expedients   of  natural  theology  are 
incompetent  for  this  solution — it  being,  in  fact,  the 
great  desideratum  which  it  cannot  satisfy.    Still  it 
performs  an  important  part  in  making  us  sensible  of 
the  desideratum.      It  makes  known  to  us  our  sin ; 
but  it  cannot  make  known  to  us  salvation.    Let  ua 


420  ON  THE  DEFECTS,  &C. 

not  overlook  the  importance  of  that  which  it  does, 
in  its  utter  helplessness  as  to  that  which  it  does 
not.  It  puts  the  question,  though  it  cannot  answer 
the  question,  and  nowhere  so  much  as  at  this 
turning  point,  are  both  the  uses  and  the  defects  of 
natural  theology  so  conspicuously  blended. 


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